Architecture students tackled a 170,000-square-foot project: proposing designs for the new Utah Natural History Museum.
The first-year graduate students presented their class projects to Professor Kendra Shank Smith who, each semester, asks her students to come up with innovative new designs for local buildings. Some previous projects include the Hogle Zoo and the downtown library.
“Students have the unique opportunity to work with actual clients and local architects. They get ideas on how to improve their work,” Smith said. “It’s good hands-on experience for them since it’s their first project of many while in graduate school.”
The new museum will be located near Red Butte Garden parallel to the Shoreline Nature Trail.
Participants unveiled their work during the final day of Fall Semester, displaying miniature models of their designs and blueprints for the buildings in a science-fair atmosphere.
For this year’s project, some of the students incorporated the theme of nature into the architecture.
Sourbabh Sinha, a first-year architecture graduate student from India, says he incorporated the theme of history into his design for the new museum.
“I wanted to exhibit the subject of history flowing like a river through time, just like how the museum documents artifacts from our past,” Sinha said. “Because this was a rather large project [170,000 square feet], it was a very useful learning experience.”
Other students got creative with the inner workings of the museum to display a side that the public rarely sees.
“When we toured the museum, I got a chance to see how the employees preserved the bones and other artifacts, so I thought it would be interesting to patrons as well,” Brigham Smith said. “That’s why I decided to include a lot of observation space in my design.”
His project caught the eye of visiting free-lance architect Tami Cleveland.
“I really enjoyed Brigham’s design because he respected the trail instead of building over it. He left that part of nature undisturbed,” she said. “I really enjoy coming every year, listening to their ideas and giving them feedback.”
Although money for the new $40 million structure has yet to be completely raised, Sarah George, director of the museum, said it is never too early to get ideas for the new design.
“These students have brought up many of the concerns, such as lighting and parking, that we will definitely need to take into consideration as we near the stages of finalizing the design for the building,” George said.
The old museum, a renovated library, currently holds more than 1 million objects in its basement ready to be displayed. Lack of a loading dock, inadequate lighting and lack of suitable display space are all reasons the museum is looking for a newer building, according to George.
Prescott Muir, president of a local architectural firm involved in the pre-planning design stages of the museum, says he was impressed by the myriad of concepts the students presented.
“I have seen these students take large complex problems and turn it into a variety of solutions. They have really worked hard at engaging the architecture with the site,” Muir said. “These students have added a lot of strength to their work and it shows.”