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interactive exhibits last 10 years at the most.  Buildings last many decades, one hopes.  From my point of view trying to design the building to the exhibits or in coordination with exhibits is pretty risky if you are building interactive science center exhibitions.  In our most recent expansion projects we tried to make sure the building provided a robust infrastructure and didn't dictate the types of exhibitions that might be feasible in the future.  A mix of naturally lit and artificially lit spaces, more intimate and more open spaces, lots of ways of running and organizing wiring and lighting, good circulation, etc   We fed the building design to the exhibition designers and they built to take advantage of the infrastructure and aesthetics the building provided.  As the time comes to change out exhibitions, one decade later, we are that the architecture and the exhibitions can be so readily decoupled.

There are some building programs I have seen, very ambitious ones, where the architecture and exhibits are really integrated.  The most ambitious one I am familiar with is the new Natural History Museum in Salt Lake City, Ennead (nee polshek) and Applebaum really worked hand in glove on that.  I haven't seen it in person yet (I am going out there later in January), but I have done a bunch of panel presentations with those folks and they have a very compelling rationale and a beautiful looking project.

So there are obviously different approaches.  If you have specialized permanent installations like Cal Academy or the new Miami Science Center, both of which have aquaria, then of course exhibitry and building design must be closely integrated.

To the OP's original question: I *definitely* would not have the exhibition designer as a sub to the architect.  They are really different skill sets and I really would want them both as responsive to the client's interests and needs as possible.  If the concern is that you don't have staff who can manage both contracts separately, you can be sure the architect is adding expense to manage the exhibition design process, so you should be able to do it as cost effectively in house.

eric siegel


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