Katherine Heit

An exhibit that embodies a defining aspect of Philadelphia—bricks. In fifteen weeks, I took this from a proposal to schematic design. Bricks are an important part of Philly’s built environment and are an incredibly versatile material. The exhibit is laid out in a micro to macro order to tell the whole story. You start with the brick, move to the building, and then to the city.

A collaborative project that started with a collection. We worked with the Berley Brothers who have an extensive collection of ice cream and candy making objects and own the Franklin Fountain, located in Old City, Philadelphia. The exhibit highlights Philadelphia’s role in shaping and progressing the ice cream industry, while explaining how ice cream is made. It is set up like a recipe and broken down into two sections: Industry & Ingredients and The Peoples Parlor.

Abstract: The current trend of museum architecture is to an impressive outward facing building that attracts visitors from all over. This is an important aspect, but we can’t forget about the staff and all the back of house spaces visitors do not see. This thesis is about considering museums as workplaces and how to design for both the staff and the visitors. It goes through workplaces studies and why this important, then to case studies of five institutions across the country of various sizes and subject matter. These case studies are used to draw up a plan of action for museum staff embarking on a new building or renovation project. This is a planning tool and not an extensive how-to. It concludes with the ways to distribute this information to get the most people on board and actually make a change in the industry.

This is my graduate thesis. Check out the whole glorious thing here.