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The MuseumMSV Design and Construction
The 50,000-square-foot Museum of the Shenandoah Valley (MSV) anchors a regional history museum complex that includes the Glen Burnie House (dating to 1794) and its six acres of surrounding gardens. The house and gardens opened to the public as a Museum in 1997. Designed by the architectural firm of Michael Graves & Associates, the Museum opened in the spring of 2005. Architect Michael Graves sought to design a structure that would have a contemporary identity, yet not overpower the richly historic context of the original Glen Burnie estate. Throughout, the new museum building reflects the character of traditional local architecture. For example, use of regional brick visually connects the new museum to the house, but the museum's larger scale brick coursing pattern is a contemporary expression. Another example frames the museum entrance. In addition to the brick coursing pattern, the museum displays a number of motifs that are particularly indicative of a Graves design. It is, for example, richly patterned. Some patterns are influenced by Valley elements, such as quilts. The museum also features "structures within structures," and contains many customized Graves-designed elements, including carpets, light fixtures, and furniture.
The museum features a hexagon-shaped lobby with a four-story circular lantern. Architect Graves has incorporated the lantern element in other designs, but never on such a grand scale. This lantern is the focal point of the museum's symmetrical design, and helps connect the interior of the building to the historic landscape. So does the museum's slightly angled turn to the west. This alignment allows a view of the historic house and gardens from the reception hall, visually connecting the two buildings. Landscaping also connects the MSV with the house and gardens. First Floor Interior SpacesThe Main Lobby acts as the MSV's central circulation hub. It extends up, to become the lantern above. Windows from some of the third floor spaces offer views of the lobby below. The dramatic main stairway to the second level galleries extends into the lobby, helping to reinforce the galleries' position as the focus of the building. Michael Graves designed the lobby's main reception desk. It is maple with a stone top, and has a center display that encases the lighting for the lantern above. White limestone covers the lobby walls, while the floor contains a mosaic of green and yellow limestone.
The North and South Halls extend outward from the lobby to form the museum's vertical spine. The use of green, yellow, and red limestone in a Graves-designed floor pattern distinguishes the halls. With their dramatic barrel-vaulted ceilings, they are one of many design features that speak of the Palladian style that influenced Thomas Jefferson, an architect who was especially important in the history of Virginia. Here as elsewhere in the museum, the wood-framed windows are custom made. The Museum Cafe is an elegant space with an outdoor patio. The room's coffered ceiling contains custom light fixtures. Maple panels in a coursing pattern form a wainscot around the room. A maple service counter features a green limestone top. The patterns on the tabletops here reference the quilts on display in the museum. The custom carpet features a design with oak leaves and acorns, symbols of the historic estate. This same carpet is used in several of the museum's public spaces.
The BB&T Learning Center enhances the Museum experience for groups of youth and adults by providing a location for educational activities. The Learning Center has simple, durable finishes, such as vinyl composite flooring and plastic laminate cabinets, and its supporting spaces include a coatroom and an audio/visual room. The Museum Store is located off the Main Lobby, and features a garden pergola as a ceiling structure, another example of the "structure within a structure" technique. This element symbolically connects the new museum with the site's gardens. The Reception Hall has three pairs of French doors that fully open to a patio and present a view of the historic house and gardens. The space's timber frame structure, custom lights and carpeting, and maple trim create an elegant space that connects to the rural setting outside.
Second and Third Floor Interior SpacesThe Second Floor Lobby has the same multi-colored stone floors as on the first level, but here placed in a "rug" pattern, with white limestone around the door portals. The barrel-vaulted ceiling is a blue Venetian plaster decorated with gold stars. These star forms are referred to as "Giotto stars," after the Florentine painter Giotto di Bondone (1266/67-1337). The stars on the museum's ceiling allude to a Valley legend that the word "Shenandoah" is an Indian term meaning "daughter of the stars." Graves has used this element in other projects, but here the use is particularly appropriate in terms of application and Valley legend. The stars on the museum's ceiling allude to a Valley legend that the word 'Shenandoah' is an Indian term meaning "daughter of the stars." All galleries are located on the second level. The four main galleries, comprised in total of eleven rooms, include the Shenandoah Valley Gallery, the Julian Wood Glass Jr. Gallery, the R. Lee Taylor Miniatures Gallery, and the Changing Exhibitions Gallery.
The Shenandoah Valley Gallery, showcase of the museum, features an octagonal-shaped orientation video room, a large central history gallery, and another intimate video room to present the Civil War story. In the orientation room, acoustical treatments are set into a coursing pattern; Michael Graves also designed the benches for this space, which can accommodate 35 viewers at any one time. All three of these rooms feature stylized timber structures suggestive of a Shenandoah Valley barn. The wood used is Douglas fir, selected by the Graves firm for its warm, rich color. All this wood is "standing forest salvaged timber," or trees that have died of natural causes or in forest fires. No mechanical means were used in the framing; it is entirely hand-wrought mortise and tenon construction. It is the museum's most impressive "structure within a structure." The Shenandoah Valley Gallery also includes three adjacent rooms for display of the Valley's decorative arts. In these rooms, objects take center stage.
Objects also take center stage in the Julian Wood Glass Jr. Gallery and Changing Exhibitions Gallery. The R. Lee Taylor Miniatures Gallery, like the orientation room, is octagonal in shape. This shape and the gallery's relatively small size provide the ideal backdrop for display of the elegant miniature houses and shadowbox rooms displayed here. The second level also includes space for collections care and storage; these non-public spaces are totally focused on the highly specialized needs required for the care of a museum collection. Administrative offices and a meeting room are located on the third floor. List of Major Firms involved with the MSV Project
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