After a statewide search and ideas competition, Allied Works was selected to design a new museum for the Benton County Historical Society in Corvallis, Oregon. The Museum showcases a growing collection comprised of cultural artifacts, natural history specimens and archives entrusted to them by Oregon State University. The Society aspired to elevate its visibility in the region by creating new galleries and interpretive spaces in the historic heart of the central Willamette Valley. The Museum was designed to create new perspectives into the objects through a range of curatorial strategies, and bring new educational, social, and cultural opportunities to the community.
Located opposite a 125-year-old general store and the former territorial capital of Oregon, the new, 19,000 s.f. museum asserts a contemporary presence, while respectfully complementing these sites and the neighboring 1920s post office through massing, material, and detail. Four parallel structural bays echo the scale and meter of the neighboring storefronts, while facades of ceramic tile re-interpret the masonry building traditions of the historic downtown core. The building embraces the street, inviting the public into the lobby and exhibit hall, museum store, classrooms, and a public courtyard. Glimpses into the galleries are seen from multiple vantages, as windows fold out over the sidewalk.
Within, visitors are guided up a grand stair into a series of interconnected galleries. The stair gallery operates as a ‘cabinet of curiosities’ lined with custom casework and curated displays of objects from the collection. Above, the galleries each occupy clear-span bays bisected by clerestories providing controlled daylight to accommodate the varied nature of the collection.
Benton County Historical Society Corvallis Museum—Architect’s Statement
Brad Cloepfil, Founding Principal
When I received the call in 2009 from the BCHS Director, Irene Zenev, I was immediately intrigued. Here was a historical society in the heart of the Willamette Valley that was aspiring to engage the community by creating a piece of contemporary architecture! This is unheard of in the west, where similar institutions are often minimally funded and consigned to buildings ill-suited to their purpose. After meeting and exploring the collection, I moved from intrigued to inspired. Her vision for exhibitions and programs was closer to that of an ambitious, civic museum: mixing artifacts and art around curatorial concepts and contemporary topics that infused new life into the objects. She was proposing an entirely new type of regional museum, where the art, natural and cultural history of the region are presented and interpreted in a brilliant way.
Our design creates a platform to support and amplify Irene’s vision and the aspirations of the board. Comprised of true art galleries and engaging social spaces, the Benton County Historical Society Museum presents an inspired dialogue of art, history, and civic architecture for the community, and we hope, a new model for similar institutions throughout the country.
Team:
Architect: Allied Works Architecture
Photography: Jeremy Bittermann
Client: Benton County Historical Society
Project Team: Brad Cloepfil, Chelsea Grassinger, Kyle Lommen, Daniel Toole, Chris Brown, Philip Balsiger, Aaron Belzer, Minh Ledao, Malcolm Lee, Keith Alnwick
Project Collaborators:
Gerding Construction, Builder
Project Renate, Exhibit Design
Devco, Civil and Structural Engineering
Glumac, MEP/FP Systems Engineering
Arup, Lighting & Daylighting
Jaffe Holden, Acoustics
Morrison Hershfield, Envelope
Michael Thrailkill, Specifications
