Little White Schoolhouse

The Little White Schoolhouse Valley project was a collaborative project where we had the chance to meet the Valley community and ask them many questions about the building, the history, and the people. We decided to keep the shell of the building the same except for their old mural and cleaned up a little bit. As you enter the Little White Schoolhouse you are welcomed by a little bit of Valley history and the history of the building. You can learn about industries, families, and watch a movie on the first floor. The bottom floor is a complete immersion space where you can play dress up, pretend to cook in a 1920s kitchen, write something on an old typewriter, or record your own history in our recording booth and leave your mark in the Little White Schoolhouse. This museum is for all ages to enjoy and truly represents the history of Valley.

Public Space?

Symposium with Javier Sanchez, Barbara Swift, and Pia Sarpaneva.

Interior Architect Lecture

The New Value of Design An Integrated design Process Interior Architects

LeMay Car Museum

This new museum is located in Tacoma and has 4 floors full of cars from all over the world, different years, and different styles. This building is beautifully designed on the exterior and the interior. Signage was clear and concise describing year, make, model of the car and in some cases history of the car or its owner. I would have liked to be able to see the signs easier than it was. I can imagine an older person with eye problems having difficulty reading the sign. The museum was divided by models of cars and year. When you enter the museum you are given a map of the museum and advice from the receptionist to how to visit the museum easily. Without these instructions or the map, it would be easy for one to get confused or lost since the levels are strangely arranged with their slants on opposite sides of the building. As interactives, the LeMay museum had some racing car simulators and little questionnaires once in a while about energy consumption, fuel, or other aspects of how a car runs, etc. The scale of the building compared to the number of cars is perfect. One does not feel overwhelmed by the amount of cars.

Webster exhibit

This Geology, Environmental Sciences, and Physics museum in Webster hall, on the Washington State University campus, was interesting and challenging due to the reality of the project and working in a group of 9 students. Being able to see the actual site, analyzing traffic flows, and hearing feedback through students and teachers occupying this building made our problem solution more obvious and solid than if it were an imagined client and space. This project involved a lot of researching on the subjects of the exhibit. Making the information easy to read, fun, and informative is harder than one might think. The broad range of the population walking through this space created an issue of how complicated the information should be. Existing interactive exhibits were old and not easily explained. We created new fun exhibits and remodeled the existing physics exhibits. Continuous graphic identity in the museum was non-existent before we created new posters and labels for all of the exhibit cases in the space. As a team, I believe we communicated very well. Creating a Facebook group helped out a lot with keeping up with who is doing what and sharing information and our work. Being the group leader, was a challenge. It is easy to ask someone to be in charge of something, but once that person doesn’t complete their task on time or is not communicating with you it gets hard not to sound bossy when trying to get things done and on time. This overall project was rewarding and taught me how to deal with a group situation and communicate our idea through public speaking, posters, and a program. I would be interested in continuing this sort of exhibit design.