An Architortured Mind: Mill City Museum: Glass on Steel on Stone

As mentioned in my last post, I just finished my facades workshop. The class was set up as 4 projects all building on the last. We were able to choose a building (which came as a pair in the first project) and I chose the Mill City Museum. If you are not familiar with this structure, let me give you some quick background on it.

Mill City Museum courtyard

Mill City Museum

The Washburn 'A' Mill was built in Minneapolis in the late 1870s as the largest flour mill in the world. It continued to operate until General Mills closed the building in the 1960s. The building sat empty. In 1990, a massive fire consumed the building, gutting it. All that remained was the shell. The city and the Minnesota Historical Society were determined to save it, and in 2003, with major renovations completed by MS&R architects of Mpls, the museum opened as one of the architectural icons of the city. This structure is, arguably, the single catalyst for the riverfront redevelopment in Minneapolis. The museum is a beautiful structure as well as an incredibly interesting exhibition of the city's milling history. I would strongly recommend it to anyone visiting Minneapolis.

Onto my workshop. I basically putzed around for the first 3 projects. Project one (with a small group that didn't exactly like working together) I explored the many layers that make up the facade. Steel, glass, rusted metal, concrete, masonry wall ruins; all combine to create a very three-dimensional facade.

Project 1 Board

Project 1 facade representation, by my partner Erin

Project 2 was material exploration. Let's just say I spent a lot of time on a study that took me nowhere. I studied properties of glass, through plexi, that could make it more like stone. My reviewers basically said it made them uncomfortable and that I should have never done this. In retrospect, I realize I was simply forcing them together. What am I, an engineer? (I kid)

Plastic studies.

(Failed) combination

Look at that beautifully carved balsa foam

Project 3 I stepped back and looked at the facade as a whole. I noticed that the upper floors, which are office floors, have a relatively flat facade, while the lower floors, which house the museum, are punctures by balconies, structural elements, doors, windows, and the courtyard itself. I realized that the programmatic functions are expressed on the form of the facade as well as the relationships between the interior and exterior spaces through the facade. This was by far my favorite study as well as one of my better reviews.

Project 3 Board

Project 3 model

The final project was all on us. We were to take what we had studied all semester and design our own intervention to the facade. It could be an addition, a change, even a deletion. I spent the first few days completely lost. My three projects were completely dissonant and I had no idea what direction to go. But after some studying, looking at pictures, and analyzing structures with in the courtyard, it dawned on me. I needed to add a new layer, one in which the interior was pulled out to the exterior. I wanted to add a glass observation deck over the rusted structure within the courtyard. Then I got a little too excited when I realized this really did cover all 3 of my previous explorations. My reviewers told me what all reviewers will say, "What if you had taken this further?" "How could you have created an entire layer, rather than the small piece you put in?" And my thought is the same as it always is. "Give me 2 more weeks (we had one and half) and I would have gone further." This model was my first experience with the laser cutter, MDF, and painting models. I cared so much about this model (not this class) that I spent way too much time on it. But I am so proud of the results, not necessarily because it is the best model, it is a long way from that, but it is the first model I have made that makes me feel like a college student, a true architorture student. I am not longer afraid of the laser cutter. I am man, hear me cut. Look at the pictures! They aren't as boring as my talking, I promise!