Archives

Canyon de Chelly National Monument Visitor Center

client: National Park Service
location: Chinle, AZ | size: 2,000 sq ft | 2012

Canyon de Chelly is a unique national treasure, a place of unsurpassed natural beauty, a sacred ancestral home, and a living community. It draws visitors from all over the world, while Navajo, Hopi, and other Native Americans come from just down the road. LCS’ work was to design a new visitor center exhibit at the monument entrance in Chinle, collaborating with the National Park Service and the local Navajo and Hopi tribes to create an experience offering multiple perspectives (cultural, scientific, and personal) on the canyon’s people and history. Mindy is most proud of the introduction of an oral history element which she pushed for, in order to show various perspectives and to keep them alive.

Turner Exhibits was the fabricator for this project. LCS worked closely with the National Park Service and, particularly, the Navajo Tribe’s park rangers. Unfortunately, termites and asbestos were discovered in the building and the exhibit was put on hold, indefinitely.

Alaska University Museum of the North Galleries

client: University of Alaska Museum of the North
location: Fairbanks, AK | size: 10,000 sq ft | opened: 2006

Lehrman Cameron Studio was commissioned to design the new galleries when the University of Alaska expanded. Mindy’s concept for this was inspired by the awesome landscape, calving glaciers, and extreme light and temperature found in Alaska. Using color and light; provocative, anticipatory views; opacities against translucencies; and extraordinary forms, LCS developed a dramatic exhibition environment. The gallery is meant to remind visitors of the context of this unique and exceptional place in the world.

Designs by LCS for this project include Rose Berry Alaska Art Gallery, Living Room, Visible Storage Gallery, and the Temporary Exhibit Gallery. Mindy also developed the initial idea for the Listening Gallery space to showcase music by John Luther Adams. The primary exhibition, entitled “A Sense of Place”, explores the UA Museum collections of Alaskan art—through the eyes of resident Alaskans, Alaska natives, and visitors. We incorporated a variety of display techniques, media applications, and lighting solutions in response to the soaring architectural design of a building with few right angles or parallel lines.

Some of the images shown here were computer generated during the design process. Actual photos of the finished site are © Brian Allan, 2006.

“Discovery Gateway”, The Children’s Museum of Utah | Galleries and Exhibitions

client: The Children’s Museum of Utah
location: Salt Lake City, Utah | size: 20,000 sq ft | opened: 2006

Lehrman Cameron Studio designed all of the primary galleries for the expanded and improved Children’s Museum of Utah (“Discovery Gateway”) in Salt Lake City. Five unique exhibit experiences on two floors, covering acres of space contain a wide variety of exhibit techniques, styles, and interactive elements for “the children’s museum you never outgrow” with a “skills-to-occupation” mission. Spaces include Story Factory, Kids Eye View Village, Media Central, The Studio, and Children’s Garden. LCS collaborated with fabricators Pacific Studio for this design/build endeavor, and worked closely with Museum staff and Salt Lake City architects, as well as consultants LA CAB of Seattle. Since opening, the lively space has entertained thousands of children—and their families.

We saw parents and children discovering side by side and working together. It would seem we have a hit on our hands! – D.D. Hilke, Museum Director

Seattle Aquarium “Puget Sound Orcas Family Activity Center”

client: Seattle Aquarium
location: Seattle, WA | size: 1,200 sq ft | opened: 2005

The Seattle Aquarium has a display about Orcas without having any Orcas on display. That is a good thing for the Orcas population but presents a challenge for interpretation. LCS designed a family center that allows people to physically see the scale of the whales and to understand the beloved Puget Sound pods. People get up close and personal, without threat to the habitats, animals, or humans.

Lava Lands Visitor Center

client: Deschutes National Forest US Forest Service
location: Bend, OR | size: 3,000 sq ft | opened: 2005

The US Forest Service engaged LCS to design an exhibit and architectural upgrades for Lava Lands Visitor Center at Newberry National Volcanic Monument near Bend, Oregon. The LCS team created a colorful, flowing exhibit, focusing on the geology, wildlife, and volcanic history of central Oregon. Also, LCS collaborated with Stastny Brun Architects of Portland on the architectural improvements.

Global Partnerships Entry Design

client: Global Partnerships
location: Seattle, WA | opened: 2011

Global Partnerships arranges micro-lending to help hundreds of South American women, their families, and their communities. Lehrman Cameron Studio helped Global Partnership introduce their good work to the people who visit their Seattle offices. Our work included the design of displays and embedded messages, a donor plaque, and flat screen wall. This was a micro project for us to help this good organization make a macro difference.

Asian Forest Sanctuary Exhibit Interpretives + Miscellany

client: Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium
location: Tacoma, WA | size: 2.2 acres | opened: 2004

As part of PDZA’s expansion project, Lehrman Cameron Studio designed the interpretive elements along the visitor paths of the Asia Forest Sanctuary Exhibit. With the help of a fictional teacher of Mindy’s devising whom she imagined visiting Asia on sabbatical and doing research there, LCS created an immersive, interactive experience filled with information about animals and sanctuaries. The “research tools” that populate the environment include graphics in the shape of notebooks, journals, and field guides, tape players with interpreted forest and elephant sounds, a “camera trap” that captures the visitor’s image on a light box, and timers that encourage visitors to become researchers themselves. The large, kinetic entry sculpture as art, sign, and symbol, introduces and defines the idea of sanctuary.

LCS was responsible for the design/build of exhibits and graphics, in collaboration with TPN (fabrication), Karen Lewis (illustrations for entry sculpture), Linda Feltner (illustrations for signs), and Laura Firth Markley (writing). Many photos on this site are by Michael Cole.

photos © Michael Cole, 2008 (except photos with people)

“Once Upon A Tide: A Seahorse Odyssey” Exhibit

client: Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium
location: Tacoma, WA | size: 2000 sq ft footprint | opened: 2003

This project was designed for the perpetually demanding but always receptive 3 to 8-year old audience that comprises the largest number of this Zoo’s visitors. The premise revolves around a seahorse named Potbelly who is charged by King Leafy to visit seahorse kingdoms around the world, and report on their health. On his quest, Potbelly learns about the fragility of seahorse life. He realizes that we are all connected, and that we can make life better by working together. King Leafy is so pleased that he knights Potbelly who takes a vow to help protect seahorses and all other living things. At a magic mirror, the visitor can take this vow too.

The odyssey, designed by LCS, starts and ends in medieval palaces. We developed the writing for this exhibition with Laura Firth Markley, animation with Karen Lewis, and illustrations with Jenny Provenzano. The space includes colorful graphics, hands-on interactives, decorative and magical effects, and lively tanks, all of which are set at a height that works for the diminutive visitors to whom this is addressed.

photos © Michael Cole, 2008 (with exception of two photos showing people)

 “It has been a pleasure seeing this exhibit come to life in your creative hands.” – Kathleen Olson (PDZA Zoo Society )

Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve (JCNERR) Visitor Center Exhibit Design
client: Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences Rutgers University, New Jersey | location: Tuckerton, New Jersey | size: 2,400 sq ft | opened: 2002

Managed by the Institute of Coastal and Marine Sciences of Rutgers University, JCNERR (pronounced by us as “jazzner”) is the most pristine estuarine habitat in the NE region of the United States. Lehrman Cameron Studio developed the visitor center exhibition, allowing people to explore the fragile estuary without stepping foot in it. The exhibit is housed within the maritime history center of Tuckerton Seaport. It introduces the reserve’s ecosystems, stretching from the Pinelands to the Atlantic Ocean, and explains Rutgers University’s research programs. Further, it encourages visitors to intimately consider their actions and the effect of development on ecology. LCS was responsible for the interpretive plan and exhibit design, in collaboration with Partners in Design (graphic design), RBH Multimedia (videos), and TPN (fabrication).

My husband and I really enjoyed the Seaport exhibits! I’ve lived here all my life and never knew what a special area we have here. – Dee Morgan, resident