Day Lit Arboretum
Museum

Arboretum Museum
Richard Schmidt
Spring - 2007

We were asked to produce a museum to be located adjacent to the on-campus Leaning Pines Arboretum. With a very specific program depicting each individual gallery’s square footage, we were asked to devise a means of day-lighting each space.

A site visit provided me with an enthralling experience of discovery as I lost myself on the convoluted maze of forest trails. I saw a beautiful tree and noticed how there is no clear separation between column and beam. I thought of a forest’s many layers and decided to separate my galleries from the main structure. Each gallery is like a series ferns under a canopy of louvers and structure. An organic section living in a machine’s plan.

Building Section

Exposition Walls - Diagram of Mobility

Light Monitors

West Elevation

South Elevation