The $21 million, 15,000-sf Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center in Church Creek, Md., uses engaging displays and exhibits to tell the story of Harriet Tubman’s life. The building’s design expresses the importance of traveling northward to escape the circumstances of slavery through an integrated site, building, and exhibit design.
The museum is conceived as a series of abstracted forms made up of two main structures, one administrative and one exhibit. The structures are joined by a shared entry plaza and terrace.
Photo: Dorchester County Tourism.
The space between the buildings grows wider as visitors move north—a metaphor for freedom—while the view to the south is truncated by the splay of the building—meant to suggest a sense of oppression.
The design firm, GWWO Inc./Architects, used three volumes to memorialize the fates of the enslaved in the region: be sold, stay in fear of being sold, or run away. As visitors make their way north, they can take detours to other parts of the museum to discover and learn. After passing through the museum, visitors are directed toward a memorial garden that heads north before weaving through the site and returning to the beginning. This garden’s path is meant to represent Tubman’s circuitous routes and willingness to return to the region.
Photo: Dorchester County Tourism.
A series of exhibit galleries, an orientation theater, a museum store, an information desk, a research library, offices, and support spaces are all included in the museum, which opened to the public in March.
Photo: Dorchester County Tourism.
Related Stories
Museums | Jul 9, 2015
David Adjaye unveils brownstone-inspired design for The Studio Museum in Harlem
In designing the five-story, 71,000-sf building, Adjaye took cues from the brownstones, churches, and bustling sidewalks of Harlem.
Museums | Jul 1, 2015
Diller Scofidio + Renfro merges old and new for UC Berkeley Art Museum design
The building, located directly across from the UC Berkeley campus, integrates the existing 48,000-sf Art Deco-style building with a new 35,000-sf structure.
Museums | Jun 28, 2015
Manhattan's New Museum debuts first museum-led incubator space
Part studio, part shared workplace, part lab, and part professional development program, NEW INC connects design with technology, the arts with the market, students with seasoned practitioners, and the museum with the world.
Museums | Jun 23, 2015
Moreau Kusunoki's 'art in the city' scheme wins Guggenheim Helsinki design competition
The firm’s design concept makes use of the museum’s site, turning it into a bustling, well-connected waterfront hub.
Museums | Jun 17, 2015
Final two designs selected for China's 'Three Museums, One Square' development
Overlooking the Pearl River in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, the cluster of museums will be designed by Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos, gmp Architekten, and Thomas Herzog Architekten.
Museums | Jun 3, 2015
Qatar launches design competition for waterfront art museum
The new gallery will repurpose a soon-to-be-vacant flour mill.
Museums | May 28, 2015
SANAA wins bid to design new building for Art Gallery of New South Wales
The museum's developers hope the new gallery will enrich Sydney’s eastern cultural precinct.
Museums | May 18, 2015
Diller Scofidio + Renfro unveils preliminary design for U.S. Olympic Museum
According to the firm’s founding partner, Elizabeth Diller, the design was inspired by the movement of athletes, as it “spirals up and outwards from a central atrium.”
Museums | May 13, 2015
The museum of tomorrow: 8 things to know about cultural institutions in today’s society
Entertainment-based experiences, personal journeys, and community engagement are among the key themes that cultural institutions must embrace to stay relevant, write Gensler's Diana Lee and Richard Jacob.
Museums | Apr 27, 2015
Finalists’ designs for Guggenheim Helsinki competition released
A custom-developed App engages an international public in the selection process.