BCRA Design

Fantastical. Real-ish. Silly. Wonderous.

All are words that inspired a new museum for children to explore, discover and -- most importantly -- act their age. Taking cues from the Reggio Method, BCRA facilitated discovery workshops to understand perspectives of museum staff, board members and creative officials throughout the community on exploration and imagination. Outcomes of those workshops were blended with programmatic requirements for the new museum, including prep areas, storage, administrative spaces and a café.

A solution both artistic and functional

Designers identified several objectives that were crucial to creating a successful new museum:

• Differentiation from neighboring museums
• Support for a "pay-what-you-can" admissions model
• Objectivity to dynamic regional demographics, including income and ethnicity
• Safe, durable areas for play

Collaboration between exhibit designers, architects and interior designers produced a comprehensive space plan that organized front-of-house and back-of-house functions, including a new café. Using that as a roadmap, the design team turned their attention to the specific exhibits and play spaces. Once concepts were developed, BCRA enlisted the help of fabricators to help bring the vision to life. Despite the challenge of an always-moving fundraising goal, the team of designers, fabricators and contractors partnered closely to translate the design concept into reality with a budget that fell short of initial museum plans. BCRA's designers responded to the challenge with effective and regular value engineering that maintained the integrity of design while addressing cost saving requirements.

To support the design of the new Children's Museum of Tacoma, Visual Communication + Strategy interviews the most important stakeholders of the project - the kids! Check out the interview: