Cowlitz River Salmon Hatchery Visitor Center
client: Tacoma Public Utilities
location: Cowlitz River, WA | size: 1,130 sq ft | opened: 2012
When Tacoma Public Utilities renovated the Salmon Hatchery at the Cowlitz River, LCS was hired to design an exhibit about the lifecycle of salmon and to describe the necessity for a hatchery. The outcome is a space where graphics and compelling interactives immerse the visitor in a highly informative and active environment. Mindy conceived of a central exhibit with hundreds of marbles flowing from Hatchery to Habitat to High Seas, through Harvest, and past Hydropower, and the LCS team — along with Dillon Works fabricators — developed a cyclical, hands-on exhibit, helping the visitor to understand the life cycle and perils of being a salmon. LCS also designed interactive exhibits, graphics, videos, projections, and other playful interpretives that frame the story. For LCS, this was supposed to be a simple graphics job, but we could not contain ourselves. (And it still came in on time and within budget.)
photos © Jim Linna, 2011
Winner of 2012 National Hydropower Association Outstanding Stewards of America’s Waters Award.