Class & Professor:
Comprehensive Design - Prof. Charles Cimino
Challenge:
Design a 50,000 GSF art museum for Wooden Objects on Evans Way Park in Boston, MA.
Vision:
Design a 50,000 GSF art museum for Wooden Objects on Evans Way Park in Boston, MA.
Vision:
When approaching the design of this museum for wooden objects, the first thing I dived
into was the placement. I was guided by several things that took my notice, one being the line of
sight connection from the entrances to the Park from Evans Way and Louis Prang, another being
the main circulation spine that seemed to diagonally cut across the park from the North to South
West. Through these parameters the site of my building is determined, placing it in the west edge
of the site forming an urban street edge with the Wentworth dorms and a fluid continuation of the
park along the other side of my building. This allows visitors to the site to move around the building,
while still being subconsciously drawn in, by the organization of the paths.
With the building itself I was guided by the idea that I wanted to showcase a wooden boat
in the large gallery. My museum would be set up to show the history of wood making in New
England. Within the site parameters it was clear that my building would have a larger “head” in the
North and a smaller “tail” in the South. The head of the building would house the galleries and
public functions including an education center and restaurant while the tail would house the more
private functions like the lecture hall, laboratories, and administration offices. These two modules
would be joined together by a circulation core in the form of an atrium, allowing visual
communication across the modules. This atrium in the middle of the building, is the main entrance,
and directly lined up with the Gardner Museum entrance as a show of friendship between the two
museums. I organized my galleries in the head on several floors, rotating around and growing
outwards like a tree around the large galleries holding the ship. The galleries on the 3rd and 4th
floors are open to the atrium allowing visual communication through galleries and allowing viewing
the ship from multiple angles. Overall I wanted to provide a straightforward circulation system for
my visitors, allowing them to experience the objects and rooms themselves in a spatially complex
way.
Concept Diagram
View from the Gardner Museum
View from the MassArt Tower
Atrium view from Entrance
Research Lab
Boat Rotunda
Typical Gallery
Lecture Hall
1st Floor
2nd Floor
3rd Floor
4th Floor
Wall Axon
Wall Section
Wall Details
