This building is designed to provide storage and research facilities for an educational institution’s vast, growing collection of artifacts and natural specimens. Each year, archaeologists uncover objects and specimens that must be carefully documented, cleaned, catalogued, analyzed, and housed in state-of-the-art facilities so that their meaning and significance can be (re)discovered and further investigated by current and future researchers. The artifacts provide crucial new insights into 18^th century society and history, including insights that cannot emerge from written records. These buried fragments—of bones, cups, bottles, shells, shoes, tools, and much more— speak volumes after they are methodically retrieved from the earth for study. 

The building’s mission inspired its architecture. The process of archaeological excavation is a very slow, patient uncovering of bits and pieces from layered earth. That ethos is transposed and interpreted in this edifice. The walls are composed of bricks made from local clay, laid in a pattern that symbolizes the presence of dispersed, buried artifacts. The well-insulated masonry walls ensure stable environmental conditions for the delicate collections safeguarded within, while the variously sized windows echo the detailed, methodical investigations taking place inside.

The floor layouts provide a range of discrete, specialized rooms for the analysis and storage of highly differentiated archaeological materials, while offering two spaces for public engagement immediately adjacent to the entrance. These two rooms allow specialists to host scholars, school groups, and other visitors in controlled conditions, while the rest of the facility remains dedicated to secure, focused processing, conservation, research and storage. The energy-efficient mechanical system provides reliable, steady climate conditions for each segment of the collections, including cool and very dry conditions for metals.

Client: Anonymous
Size: 20,000 SF
Design Team: Mandi Lew, Eddie Gormley, Lis Cena (SAA); McClure Engineering Associates (MEP)
Rendering: Synoesis