Corvallis Museum In-Person Tour

 

After two years absent of the opportunity to visit noteworthy local building projects, AIA Oregon and/or the Willamette Valley Chapter of the Construction Specifications Institute have offered several tours this year in rapid succession. The most recent was this past Wednesday’s tour of the new Corvallis Museum. Located at 411 SW 2nd Street in downtown Corvallis, the museum adds a considerable cultural amenity and draw to Benton County’s principal urban center. It significantly complements the BCHS’s other extensive assets, which are primarily located in nearby Philomath and include the historic Philomath Museum and the Peter & Rosalie Johnson Collections Center.
 
I’ve written three previous entries about the Corvallis Museum, dating back a dozen years. My fascination with the project stems from my admiration for the work of the building’s author—Allied Works Architecture—and the fact my office also pursued the commission. My familiarity with the project’s goals, the nature of the museum’s collections and mission, and its location in downtown Corvallis drove my continued interest throughout its protracted development.
 
About twenty AIA Oregon members were on hand for the in-person tour, ably led by Jessica Hougen (Executive Director, Benton County Historical Society), Michael Schweizer (former member of the BCHS Board of Trustees and current advisor to the board), and Chelsea Grassinger (design principal with Allied Works Architecture).
 
My account of last fall’s virtual tour of the then recently completed museum—also hosted by Jessica, Michael, and Chelsea—covered a lot of the territory I might otherwise repeat here. What I can say unequivocally is the opportunity to experience the building with all my senses was necessary to fully appreciate the genius of a deceptively simple and elegant design.
 

Exterior view from SW 2nd Street (all photos by me)

I do find some Allied Works Architecture projects to be mysterious, and the motivations behind the genesis and execution of their designs indecipherable (particularly when attempting to grasp them solely from drawings or photographs). Though it brought the firm a substantial measure of notoriety and attention, Witold Rybczynski characterized Allied Works’ design for the Museum of Arts and Design in New York as “fashionably inscrutable and mildly intimidating.”(1) That’s most certainly not the case with the Corvallis Museum.
 
That I do not find the museum either inscrutable or intimidating is in large part attributable to its modest scale, the luminous, hand-raked Japanese tile cladding, and refreshing transparency along both the SW 2nd Street and Adams Street frontages. The museum is physically welcoming, differentiated from its neighbors while at once complementing their massing, material, and detail. Though it glows, the Corvallis Museum is not an alien presence.

Lobby

 
Inside, the lobby, exhibit spaces, museum store, and classroom/event room feature a consistent palette of neutral, walls and ceilings (variously white-painted drywall or wood), wood floors (slate at the ground-level lobby), and elegantly detailed and minimalistic guardrails, handrails, display vitrines, and casework. The oak-clad grand stair draws visitors upstairs, while framing the majesty that is Bruce the Moose, the museum’s de facto mascot.

Bruce

The origami-like folding of the ceilings, walls, and clerestory windows of the second-floor galleries carefully frames views to the exterior and controls the entrance of natural light. The geometry is necessarily complex but does not detract from the exhibits on display or an overall impression of calm and order.
 
The quirkiness of the eclectic exhibits currently on display deservedly draw the focus of visitors to the museum. The Corvallis Museum features selections from the Benton County Historical Society’s massive collection of over 120,000 artifacts. The charming collection includes photographs, historical documents, textiles, clothing, domestic arts, farm implements, scientific instruments, and personal possessions. The juxtaposition of wildly disparate items—vintage hats & chairs, an old mainframe computer with its innards exposed, lumberjack saws, taxidermy, a ship’s helm, roller blades, and more—hardly seems curated, but purposely celebrates the one-of-a-kind past and present of Benton County.(2)   

 

If I must identify one quibble with the design, it is how acoustically lively the central lobby/atrium is. The reverberance appears compounded by the geometry of the reflective ceiling planes ringing the opening to the mezzanine exhibit space above. I didn’t ask whether this was by design (given that an acoustical consultant—Jaffe Holden—was part of the design team, and how thoroughly considered every other aspect of the interiors appears to have been) or a matter of budget limitations. By contrast, the gallery spaces control noise much more effectively.
 
My photographs fall woefully short of capturing the essence of an in-person visit to the museum. Jeremy Bitterman’s beautifully radiant images on the Allied Works website warrant your admiration, but they too cannot reveal the experiential qualities of walking around and through the building.
 
Overall, I’m a big fan of the Corvallis Museum. Kudos to the Benton County Historical Society and its many supporters for making its long-held vision for the museum a reality. The building is a significant architectural accomplishment and an amazing cultural asset for downtown Corvallis.
 
 
(1)    Ironically, as I detailed in my Virtual Tour post, it was the Museum of Arts and Design that brought Allied Works and the firm’s founder, Brad Cloepfil, to the attention of Irene Zenev, who was the Benton County Historical Society’s executive director during the design and construction of the Corvallis Museums.
 
(2)    Renate provided exhibit design services.