PROJECT
interiors
Museum Showcases Oregon Maritime History Barn-like building serves as a beacon for change along Coos Bay waterfront. The 15,000-sq.-ft. Coos History Museum and Maritime Collection building houses more than 250,000 photographs and artifacts representing the Oregon Coast’s agrarian, maritime, and cultural history.
Above. The Coos Museum siting pays tribute to the bay, historical road, and ruins of long-ago-active wharfs. Below. A light well delivers daylight to the museum interior during the day and serves as a beacon at night.
he Coos History Museum and Maritime Col-
T
The museum had outgrown the facility it occupied
lection (CHMC) organization and building
since 1950, and a grant in 2000 initiated the search for a
were founded by Oregon’s oldest historical so-
new home. The grant stipulated that the new museum be
“Designing a museum means designing for conflict-
ciety. The building now houses more than 250,000 pho-
located on Highway 101 to provide a development cata-
ing interests. Curators want a repository, administration
tographs and artifacts representing the Oregon Coast’s
lyst for the long-abandoned historic wharf at Coos Bay.
wants earned income, and the public wants entertain-
gramming efforts to reduce budget while protecting the museum’s vision.
agrarian, maritime, and cultural history. Located on the
Seattle-based Miller Hull Partnership joined the proj-
ment and a convening space. Not only that, but the par-
historic wharf at the gateway to Coos Bay in Oregon, the
ect during the height of the 2010 economic downturn
ticular Coos Bay environment means designing for regu-
museum bridges the history of the region to the present
with Mark Johnson (now principal of Signal Architecture
lar gales and potential earthquakes. The Coos History
through stories of the Coos and Coquille Tribes, coal
+ Research, Seattle) leading the team as project manager
Museum, under Signal and Mark Johnson’s vision, made
miners, loggers, farmers, and shipbuilders who constitute
and architect. Realizing that austerity would save the
all of those things possible in a compact but dramatic
the history of the region.
project, Johnson led the team through scale and pro-
15,000-sq.-ft. space. Their ability to find common ground
48
COMMERCI A L A RCHI T EC T URE
JANUARY 2018
commercialarchitecturemagazine.com
