Mississippi, America’s birthplace of music, is the home of the only Grammy Museum outside of Los Angeles. Our joint venture team was selected to provide services for the new one-story, 27,500 SF museum located on the campus of Delta State University in Cleveland, MS. The state-of-the-art facility explores and celebrates music in Mississippi including the creative process, the art and technology of the recording process, and its enduring legacy. The museum consists of 10,000 SF of exhibit space, a 120-seat sound stage, a classroom and administrative offices.
GRAMMY® Museum Mississippi uses a dynamic combination of exhibits, public events and educational programming to explore, celebrate, and experience: the enduring legacies of all forms of recorded music; the creative process of music-making; the art and technology of the recording process; and the history of the GRAMMY® Awards, the premier recognition of recorded music accomplishment.
The museum is designed to be a landmark project for the State of Mississippi and to convey the relevance of Mississippi music in today’s industry. This is reflected in the building aesthetic through the use of contemporary forms and materials. The exterior of the museum is partially composed of a specialized wood screen in order to relate the contemporary building design to the local vernacular. The lobby and public corridor consist of large expanses of glass curtainwall. The curtainwall grid accents the exposed structural grid and the mullions are a neutral color to complement the overall context.
A generous front porch commands the view from the Highway 8 in Cleveland, MS and welcomes visitors as they approach by vehicle from the south or on foot from the east. Vehicular loading and unloading lanes accommodate up to three busloads of visitors at a time and allow direct access to the museum entrance without crossing traffic.
A double height glass lobby runs east west just north of the porch and allows abundant natural light into the space. Solar heat gain is controlled via a louver system on the south façade and deep overhangs and decorative screens on the west. Semi-public spaces (a corridor, restrooms and educational classroom) face the parking lot to the west and use overhangs and deciduous vegetation as solar control. Service is tucked around the north side of the building and is buffered from and existing golf course via trees and a landscaping berm. A mixture of rustic materials such as weathered wood and painted steel mix with modern forms to create an image that is of the Mississippi delta but also looks towards the future.
Inside the lobby visitors are greeted immediately with a donor wall and a combination museum ticket counter / shop. To increase the visibility of retail and to give the manager good lines of sight, the shop protrudes into the lobby space. At the east end of the lobby are the entrances to the main 8,000-sf exhibit, the 2,000-sf temporary exhibit, and a 2,000-sf soundstage. At the west end of the lobby is a broad, glass-lined hallway leading to the classroom, restrooms, and a second entrance from the accessible ramp. Back of house spaces such as administration, mechanical, green room, AV-room, and kitchen are reached off of an L-shaped corridor accessed through a pair of double doors down this hall. This corridor is also accessible via an entry from the north and from the loading dock.
Material Used:
1. Petersen’s PAC-CLAD ½“ corrugated panels - Primary wall panel
2. Petersen’s PAC-CLAD perforated aluminum 7.2 Panels - accent wall panel
3. Petersen’s PAC-CLAD perforated aluminum .032 panels - accent wall panel
4. Cor-ten® Weathering Steel - accent wall panel
5. Petersen’s Tite-Loc Plus Panels - porch roof
6. Petersen’s PAC-CLAD 12 in. Flush Panels - Soffit
7. Tubelite 400 Series Curtainwall
8. Tubelite 4500 Series Storefront
9. Guardian SunGuard SNX 62/27
10. Geolam Soleo 10 Aluminum 4G - solar louvers
