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The First Nations Garden Pavilion at the Montréal Botanical Garden minimally intrudes the native landscape. Vertical surfaces, including transparent “glass sandwich” cases (featuring material cultural objects made from plant materials) are minimized to limit visual impact. Building materials are left in an unfinished state, including the poured-in-place concrete roof that exposes the wood formwork.
Architects: Saucier + Perrotte
ObjectIDEA and
toured the USS Yorktown this month... and we can’t stop thinking about it. We were invited aboard the ship to consider what kinds of improvements might make the aircraft carrier more exciting, educational, honorable, accessible, and memorable as a museum and attraction.
The approach to
Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum
, where the ship is located, is a magnificent experience. The scale and visceral importance of the artifacts, including the carrier, a destroyer, and a submarine, are immense and powerful. We expected the encounter aboard the USS Yorktown to be grand and important. We were not disappointed.
Once inside the ship, the hangar deck (a sheltered “parking garage” for airplanes), greeted us with a dozen our so such planes (including a F4U Corsair and a F6F Hellcat) and many scale models of ships and small-scale memorial exhibits. We could see a flight simulator buzzing and rocking, an apparently new exhibit about the Medal of Honor, and a model of the Apollo 8 space capsule. There was a large theater that was running what appeared to be a full-length movie and nearby: a model of the Wright Flyer.
We suspect that newcomers find it difficult to navigate the ship intellectually. There are few orientation cues and no strong sense of interpretive structure: no obvious overarching ideas, few thematic groupings, and a unified voice for the visitors’ experience is not apparent.
Many formal exhibits, staged in various rooms have a piecemeal look to them, appearing to be “labors of love” from various organizations and individuals. These displays, while charming enough (they are hand-stitched, hand-lettered, and often affixed with tape or screws) contribute to the humanization of the ship, but detract from any sense of unity. That said, we fully enjoyed them for their personal quality.
Contrary to this, the
physical
experience is absolutely unrivaled.
We honestly have never experienced anything like our visit to the USS Yorktown.
We were provided with an experience that most museums struggle to create through exhibition design: authentic artifact interrogation and a sense of
We were able to climb narrow stairways, descend deep into the engine room, wander the crew’s berth rooms, and tour the expansive flight deck. Our senses were filled with spectacular views, the sounds of historic communication, and the smell of oily engines. We touched everything... even took a seat in the captains chair and barked “orders” through a speaking tube.
In revamping the visitors’ experience at the USS Yorktown we hope to see:
• A cleaner and more organized arrival sequence;
• A compelling and meaningful orientation experience that organizes the visit, communicating the historical, technological, and personal significance of the USS Yorktown;
• Integrated science and social history content;
• A respectful plan for the inclusion of “synthetic” experiences like flight simulators and food service amenities;
• A more “textural” interpretive experience – one where dramatic theater, sound and light, entertaining role play, and serious history are intertwined.
The Yorktown is one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War II for the United States Navy. She was commissioned in April 1943, and participated in several campaigns in the Pacific Theater of Operations, earning 11 battle stars and the Presidential Unit Citation.
She was modernized and recommissioned in the early 1950s as an attack carrier and then eventually became an antisubmarine carrier. She was recommissioned too late to participate in the Korean War but served for many years in the Pacific, including duty in the Vietnam War, in which she earned five battle stars. Late in her career she served as a recovery ship for the Apollo 8 space mission, was used in the movie
Tora! Tora! Tora!
which recreated the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and in the science fiction film
The Philadelphia Experiment
.
Yorktown was decommissioned for the last time in 1970 and in 1975 became a museum ship at Patriot's Point, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. She is a National Historic Landmark.
Having done no pre-visit research at all, I really thought I was going to the Museum of Science to learn about volcanology and archaeological scientific methods – maybe even some forensics – when I chose to take my wife to see “A Day in Pompeii” – a temporary exhibition in Boston, one of its only four destinations on its US tour.
Once inside the exhibit, we were delighted to find richly colored fresco murals, marble and bronze statues of Venus and other patron gods, plates, bowls, and jugs. We were amazed to find fully intact tables and chairs upon which ancient Romans reclined and dined. We found exquisite jewelry and crude pottery. There were charred peach pits and loaves of bread… and… way in the back: I think I saw dead people.
Organization
The organization of the exhibit was not obvious at first, but that quickly cleared. The first arrangement of objects featured discoveries from common households and gardens, and the last display featured objects from across the entire “city town” – from trade businesses, boats, community gathering places, public forums, and burial sites. The middle of the exhibit featured the famous body casts that suspend the horror of the Vesuvius eruption of AD 79 that destroyed (and preserved!) Pompeii under 12 or so feet of ash.
Graphics
Large, illustrated wall graphics created “chapters” in the exhibit whose themes organized the collections and helped the reader envision a living Pompeii: A Typical House, Medicine, Preparing Food, The Public Square, etc.
The remainder of graphics were small object captions. The writing style was interrogative, encouraging the reader to look for details in each of the objects. We were invited to look for the hidden lizard in the fresco, notice the inscription on a piece of jewelry – a gift from a master to his slave, and compare the curvaceous shapes of vessels that once contained different foodstuffs.
It was possible to view every item and read every word in the course of a two hour visit, which indeed we did.
AV Media
Two animated video theaters offered a glimpse into the daily life of Pompeians and what the eruption of Mount Vesuvius may have looked like. The theaterettes offered an informative place to rest and seemed to be popular with kids and families (what kid doesn’t want to witness a whole town get burned and buried by a volcano?!)
Body Casts
The body casts were located in a secluded gallery, appreciable in the round, and complemented by a respectful soundtrack. This presentation fostered reverence in visitors.
Design Critique
I’m mostly critical of the exhibition’s entrance and exit experiences. The serpentine queue line at the front of the gallery held 60-100 people until our entry time. We were held in a rectangular foyer where an introductory video was projected on the narrow-end wall. In this orientation, the video couldn’t be viewed by people in the back of the line and so they chose to entertain themselves through conversation and cellphone use. Perhaps the wider wall would have been a better choice for the video?
I suspect that packaging and promoting this material for science museums has compelled its producers to add scientific content and hands-on elements to the exhibition – at the end. The last gallery takes a look at the Ring of Fire and a history of volcanic eruptions around the globe, a timeline of the excavation of Pompeii, and some “interactive” playthings for busy hands. It really doesn’t fit the character or the mindset of the heart of the exhibition. To me, the conclusion was artificial, it was loud, and it was cheap. The scientific ideas that I was curious about: how the body cavities were found and how the casts were made, how an entire city was discovered and uncovered, and how historians know what they know, were not addressed in any detail.
I really appreciated that the color scheme was unobtrusively dark and that the plinths and pedestals were non-decorative. The warm colors and organic shapes of the objects burst forth. Typographic treatments were equally benign. I was relieved to see no sign of the Herculaneum typeface and no simulated fresco textures. “Classy” I thought. Lighting was both mood-setting and set at the right levels for reading.
I didn’t love that the cast bodies were displayed on beds of lava rock that resembled the chunks I put in the bottom of my Weber grill, but now I’m just getting picky.
If you are able to see this exhibition, it’s an amazing peek beneath the ancient ash. I highly commend it for its authenticity and engaging interpretation.
The exhibit requires an additional fee and a timed entry ticket. It is in Boston through February 12. Just google it to learn more about its touring circuit.