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The Smart Building Innovation Center (SBC), planned to open in spring of 2015 as a multi-functional headquarters on the first floor of the Pacific Tower Building in Seattle, Washington. The SBC would welcome visitors to tour, attend events, and/or work in its innovative offices on site. It was intended to be a destination for energy practitioners, property owners, developers, educators, and affiliates in the Pacific Northwest. Its lofty and worthy goal was that the place would serve as an example of insightful ideas, and operate at the leading edge of creative workspace solutions, including energy efficiency performance, where users and visitors could learn about the most current and inventive best practices for architectural renovation projects.

Lehrman Cameron Studio (LCS) designed the interior spaces, including exhibition areas and didactic elements as an uncommonly flexible and knowledge-rich working/learning environment. Our idea was that in general and into the details and specifics, the designs and plans would insure that the SBC headquarters would be efficient, highly functioning, aesthetically pleasing, and exceedingly informative, in reflection of the stated SBC’s values.

Sadly, the project stalled at Design Development due to internal institutional complications. With the continuing and severe impact of architectural renovation projects on the natural environment, this was, and still is an admirable idea.

Looff Carrousel | Interpretive Design Plan

client: City of Spokane Parks and Recreation
location: Spokane, WA | size: 1,600 sq ft | completed: 2016

The Looff Carrousel has been a Spokane destination since 1909. Designed and carved by the confident and talented Charles Looff, it is one of the most beautiful and well preserved hand-carved carousels in America. This ride embodies the hopes and dreams of early American immigrant crafts people, engineers, and technicians, and these were stories that Mindy and her team aimed to make tangible for visitors.

The Looff Carrousel is a rare survivor from the Golden Age of American carousels, and all of the carousel figures are original. Although not currently a widely practiced art, carousel making is illustrious, and dates back to the Middle Ages. This impressive piece has been lovingly and painstakingly preserved by many people, but not least of all, Betty Largent, a carousel restoration artist who has dedicated herself to the effort.

Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson Park | Interpretive Design

client: City of Everett Parks and Recreation
location: Everett, WA | size: four acres | opened: 2016

Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson grew up in Everett, Washington where he was a determined,  disciplined, motivated person with persistent integrity who lived up to his high ideals. Over a career that spanned more than four decades, he was an extremely effective leader who bypassed bipartisan politics with his thoughtful, steady intelligence. He changed the face of America in the fields of international affairs, education, human rights, environmental and natural resource management, and public service. Senator Jackson was respected and well-liked; perhaps the most liberal conservative or the most conservative liberal politician, ignoring party lines in order to address and settle important issues.

Mindy’s ideas for the design of interpretation for this park were to make connections between Everett and other places where Jackson made significant differences. Her presiding interpretive idea was “From here, you can go anywhere.” The interpretive designs were meant to reflect the ambition, integrity, strength, and persistence of this man, as well as his unique ability to achieve balance.

Unfortunately, the budget for this project was decimated over the course of the larger landscape design, and very few remnants of the interpretive ideas remain on site.

The Northwest School Energy Wall

client: NW School
location: Seattle, WA| size: 2o0 sq ft wall | completed: 2014

Northwest School had a solitary dashboard (monitor) on a blank wall near their cafeteria. The dashboard recorded the energy and other resource deployment of the green building in real time and over the course of time – data that could be mined for information by students and faculty. Mindy, and her associate Laurel Wilson, designed variations of a full exhibit for the wall around the monitor. The intent was that the completed exhibit would instruct and explain aspects of the content on the dashboard, adding a breadth and depth of information, accessible to students who would ostensibly become stewards of the wall. The information was both local and global. The design included fixed elements within a clear organization, as well as pieces that could be removed and taken to classrooms, and/or changed over time. The wall would be a living thing to be maintained and curated by the students and their teachers, a work in progress throughout its lifetime.

Master Design Standards for Interpretive Signage at Newhalem

client: Seattle City Light
location: Newhalem, WA | size: city limits | completed: 2013

Skagit River Hydroelectric Power Project is a place of social, technological, and economic importance in the on-going history of the city of Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. As Seattle City Light’s dams and electrical distribution along the Skagit River evolved, and as the transportation routes through the region developed, many people have visited the town of Newhalem, a place that is a pivotal and central part of City Light’s history. Over time, interpretive signs have been placed in and around the town and powerhouse, but these signs proliferated until they varied widely in style, voice, age, and condition. The LCS Master Design Standards for Interpretive Signage (Plan) is meant to give direction to the design of storytelling devices throughout the project, in particular signs at Newhalem. The Plan is intended to work hand-in-hand with architecture and landscape to tell a coherent story to visitors.

Washington Park Arboretum | Interpretive + Wayfinding Plan, and Loop Trail Wayfinding Designs

client: University of Washington
location: Seattle, WA | size: 230 acres | opened: 2004

LCS produced a comprehensive Interpretive and Wayfinding Plan for the Washington Park Arboretum, a site originally designed by the firm of Frederick Law Olmsted. This project was identified in the Park’s Facility Master Plan and was one of the first of many to be implemented. LCS did extensive research on the contextual issues, produced signage style guidelines, and made recommendations for the implementation of work at the Park. The Park has subsequently used the Plan to produce various elements in the landscape.

LCS also worked with Berger Partnership landscapers to develop signage for an Arboretum Loop Trail.

We are honored to have played a role in articulating a coherent foundation and in producing unique contextual designs for the on-going life of this cherished oasis in the urban landscape of Seattle.

Northwest Energy Visitor Center

client: NorthWestern Energy
location: Butte, MT | size: 1,600 sq ft | completed: 2014

LCS designed a concept plan for a visitor center exhibit experience describing North Western Energy’s services and programs within the larger context of Montana and US history. A major portion of the storyline intends to help visitors understand and appreciate how energy is created, transmitted, and distributed, and to introduce the field’s newest technological advancements with an emphasis on sustainable energy. A video wall describes development in the region over time and, as is the case in most of Mindy’s exhibits, one section helps the visitor to recognize the impact of their own activities and choices.

WA State Parks Puget Sound Initiative | Interpretive + Education Plan

client: Washington State Parks 
location: Seattle, WA | size: 26 state parks | opened: 2007

LCS developed an interpretive and education plan for the Washington State parks that border Puget Sound. The intent was to describe the work that the Parks Commission had been doing to improve storm water and wastewater systems through the Governor’s Puget Sound Initiative project. The LCS plan suggests a baseline approach at all parks to include signage, programs, and other techniques, with special projects such as sculpture, playgrounds, guided trails, rain garden amphitheaters, and other ambitious projects at particular locations. All methods are site and context-specific and are intended to maximize a connection to help the public understand the programs and what they can personally do in their communities to improve water conditions throughout the state.

Old Man House Park Interpretive Landscape Design

client: The Suquamish Tribe
location: Kitsap County, WA | completed: 2012

Old Man House Park exists as a lovely, though somewhat neglected waterside oasis, surrounded by a housing development, disconnected from its important Tribal history. This was the “mother village” of the Suquamish Tribe and other Suquamish people, and of Chief Sealth (after whom the city of Seattle is named) who wintered on this site for about sixty years. In the early 2000s, the site was restored to the care of the Suquamish Tribe who hired Lehrman Cameron Studio to help with development and designs. The intent of our interpretation was to educate the public, including members of the Tribe itself, about the culture, history, and status of the Tribe and this historic site. The idea was to make the invisible visible, and form a relevant connection between the events of the past and the people and activities of today. It was also to give voice to a perspective favorable and proud of the past in a manner to inspire.

Snoqualmie Falls Interpretive Design + Exhibits

client: Puget Sound Energy
location: Snoqualmie Falls, Snoqualmie, WA

Snoqualmie Falls gets two million tourists each year and is the second most visited tourist destination in the state. But most people do not recognize the fact that there is a historic underground hydroelectric plant with a tale of intrigue, or that the Snoqualmie Tribe considers the Falls as the place of Creation. Puget Sound Energy hired Lehrman Cameron Studio to interpret these stories and make them visible throughout the Park.

There were three distinct phases of what comprised a four-and-a-half-year project for Lehrman Cameron Studio. The first phase, Upper Park, opened in 2010. The rest of the Park, including Lower Park and Trail, and Plant One Historic District were completed in 2013. The work is exterior within the landscape and interior within the historic buildings. All of the work was led by Mindy.

The project was done in collaboration with AECOM Landscape Architects, Bola Architects, Puget Sound Energy, and the Snoqualmie Tribe (for tribal subject matter).

Upper Park
size: 80 acres | opened: 2010

The LCS team designed the interpretation that resides throughout the Upper Park of Snoqualmie Falls. This includes the entry kiosk with planted roof, interpretive signs, wayfinding markers, and discovery elements. The site and individual components are embedded with historic artifacts taken from the power plant and park during renovation, such as rain chains made from intake trash racks, gears, turbines, stone used as aggregate in the concrete, and a mechanical part used for the geo markers.

Lower Park + Trail
size: approx. 3000 sq ft interior and one-acre exterior | opened: 2013

Along with the renowned Upper Park at Snoqualmie Falls there is also a historic Lower Park area and a steep trail system connecting the two. Elements designed by LCS at Lower Park and Trail include signage about flora and fauna, and about the technology of the hydropower plant, including the original and renovated 1910 Plant Two facility. There are signs co-written with the Snoqualmie Tribe at the Lower Falls Viewpoint. Mindy designed a walk-through, hands-on section of the historic penstocks (that would otherwise have been thrown out) which frames the newer penstocks which visitors cannot touch. There is also an education kiosk that houses an interactive hydroelectric exhibit available to school groups.

Historic District
size: approx. 3000 sq ft interior and one-acre exterior | opened: 2013

Across from the main park at Snoqualmie Falls, there is a renovated historic district. Inside and around the buildings and railroad tracks there are elaborate exhibits with historic equipment and interactive displays, designed by Mindy and her team. The Depot exhibits focus on the social and cultural aspects of the development of the 1898 and 1910 hydroelectric plants. The Carpenter’s Shop exhibits are about the plant’s technology and engineering. Each building displays unique and extraordinary artifacts, revealing an  intimate history of social and technological intrigue.

Puget Sound Energy refers to the exhibit we designed as “one of Washington’s historical treasures”.