A creative adaptive reuse of an extant shell of a mill building, with
contrasting insertion of contemporary materials, weaving the old and
the new into a seamless whole…A complex and intriguing social and
regional story that reveals itself as the visitor progresses through
the spaces. It is museum as a verb…A gutsy, crystalline, glowing
courtyard for a reemerging waterfront district that attracts young and
old and has stimulated adjacent development [source].
Jason Kottke shares a wonderful experience of a old derelict ruin turned into a museum. I am always fascinated by subtle workings of such architectural ingenuity where the changes do not overwhelm the basic structure or diminish the experience. My design dissertation during my undergrad years focused on a similar concept. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a shell of an historic structure to work with but nevertheless, the experience is in the sense of a place which the Mill City Musuem does a great job of.
Update: A panoramic image of Mill City Museum [click on image for larger version]
Image courtesy: Kottke.
Technorati Tags: Mill City Museum, historic preservation, history, architecture, preservation, Minneapolis, Washburn A mill
