Columbus Historical Society Sam Ferguson and Michael Wade Kay Bea Jones Studio AU20
Thank you to Kay Bea Jones for your insight and thoughtful guidance on using architecture to address the deep and complex subject of history.
Table of Contents Site Information Planter Detail Entry Perspectives Plans Sections Atrium Perspective Movement Diagrams Gallery Details Gallery Perspectives Relic Garden Perspectives
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Our proposal for the Columbus Historical Society is embedded within a man-made hill, creating a dynamic museum experience and providing greenery to the urban surroundings. The hill lends itself to an architectural procession, elevating people above the city while also providing room for excavation and discovery. By removing visitors from the bustle of the street, they are able to better reflect on the history of Columbus.
Columbus Historical Society | Site Plan
Site Plan
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The surface condition of the hill will be terraced and would include native plants and low-maintenance vegetation. The procession begins outside along Broad Street and ends with a rooftop relic garden housing signage, sculptures, and icons from Columbus’s past.
Columbus Historical Society | Site Plan
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Our terracing idea becomes important in section, allowing for the vegetated hillside while creating a dynamic interior ceiling condition. A structural steel frame allows the hill’s curvature to float over extended distances.
Columbus Historical Society | Planter Detail
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Our building is angled to address the national road, Broad Street, while giving public outdoor space back to the city as well. Visitors are drawn up the entry ramp and toward the tower seen at the back of the site.
Columbus Historical Society | View from Broad Street
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At the top of the entry ramp, visitors arrive at the main entrance to the building and a space for outdoor congregation and events.
Columbus Historical Society | View of Entry Plaza
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The elevated entry plaza is shown here, in plan, on the right. After passing through the main entrance, one is given the choice to continue into the gallery spaces or to descend to the lower level. The lower level includes the administrative and archive functions of the building, along with the community spaces and the auditorium. On the upper floor, the galleries sit below the peak of the hill, floating above the lower lobby. The tower, which served as a destination object on the outside, becomes a source of light at the back of the main gallery.
Columbus Historical Society | Plans
lower plan
upper plan
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We start to see the weight of the landscape above and how this then influences what happens underneath. Because of the lack of natural light from above, the feeling of being embedded within this landscape becomes even greater. As we’ll see later on, this allows for lighting to be fully in our control and to have the light focus in on the installations more than anything else.
Columbus Historical Society | Sections
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We also start to see also how the garden above becomes inhabited with relics as well as being occupiable for visitors to experience once they have ascended through the tower. The atrium and the tower both emerge from the landscape in order to bring in natural light to the dark spaces underneath the hill.
Columbus Historical Society | Sections
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Once inside the atrium, the two different paths through the building become very clear. The options become to either go down into the lower level or to advance on the same level into the gallery sequence. The statue of Christopher Columbus is displayed in a neutral context where he is removed from city hall and now is initially viewed at eye level which diminishes the grand stature he possessed in his former home.
Columbus Historical Society | View of Atrium
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The next sequence of drawings illustrates the multiple ways to experience the building.
Columbus Historical Society | Movement: Overall
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We start with the entry ramp that leads you to the atrium that, as we mentioned earlier, provides visitors with a choice to either stay the course and go into the galleries, or to descend into the lower level.
Columbus Historical Society | Movement: Entry Sequence
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In the lower level, not only is access from the atrium available, but an entry is also provided at ground level for workers, service and other people who may only need to access the lower level from the parking lot.
Columbus Historical Society | Movement: Administrative
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The gallery sequence is seen as a continuation of the atrium space that takes people into the heart of the hill and feels most underground.
Columbus Historical Society | Movement: Galleries
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Finally, you are able to go up the tower and experience the rooftop relic garden that concludes the experience that was first viewed from Broad Street.
Columbus Historical Society | Movement: Relic Garden
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The gallery sequence is shown again here, in more detail. From the gallery entrance, shown here at the lower right, one can choose to explore the main gallery or to cross over into the linked galleries. These four smaller galleries provide for a choreographed experience depicting chronology or some other sequence of themes. At the end of the fourth gallery, one emerges into the main gallery, where they can look back to the atrium.
Columbus Historical Society | Gallery Sequence
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Our galleries encourage visitors to interact with the exhibits, making for an unusually tactile museum experience. For the first exhibit, featuring works by Italian sculptor Edoardo Alfieri, sketches are housed in glass frames which visitors of all ages can manipulate for lighting or creative purposes.
Columbus Historical Society | Hanging Detail
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We envision this installation method as providing an experience that is suitable for all, and in this case, children. With this method, history becomes more accessible, giving kids the opportunity to manipulate the pieces and feel that they are taking an active part in the exhibit.
Columbus Historical Society | Hanging Detail
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Here you can see an example of a room where we are able to control lighting and put an emphasis on the installation pieces. Due to the topography above, the lighting details are able to be visibly hidden from guests as their attention is drawn directly towards the artifacts.
Columbus Historical Society | Lighting Detail
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In this image we can see the main gallery and how the weight of the landscape above creates a darker environment that is able to be lit up to highlight the artifacts. The arms that hold the sketches start to create 3D space on a flat wall. In the main gallery especially, open spaces allow for these displays to create more volumetric space within it. And finally, in terms of the lighting, as you move through each of the galleries, the ability to control lighting becomes more and more important.
Columbus Historical Society | View of Main Gallery
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This is the room that was highlighted in the lighting detail with Alfieri’s Columbus maquette. This particular gallery is the most pushed back into the landscape which means that it is the darkest one, allowing curators to use light in an even more dramatic fashion. With this being the furthest removed gallery from the entry, the placement of another relic of Columbus ties it back to the museum and more importantly, the city as a whole. As mentioned earlier, this experience culminates with an emergence from the fourth gallery back out into the main gallery which presents views back to the iconic Columbus statue standing at eye level in the entryway.
Columbus Historical Society | View of Linked Galleries
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After exiting the relatively dark galleries, daylight floods the stair tower as you begin to make your way towards the relic garden. As you ascend, views of the surrounding neighborhoods and downtown are provided to you.
Columbus Historical Society | View of Tower
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At this point, one will emerge into the relic garden, a relief from both the darkness of the galleries and from the emotional weight of their contents. Here, visitors are reacquainted with signage and icons in a lighter, more whimsical atmosphere, allowing them to reminisce fondly on their past experiences in Columbus.
Columbus Historical Society | View of Relic Garden
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Finally, visitors can visit the fourth-floor garden walkway, which provides views to downtown and to the building’s immediate surroundings. As they leave, visitors take with them an understanding of their own place and time in Columbus’s history.
Columbus Historical Society | View of Rooftop Walkway
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