College of Eastern Utah, Paige, Utah
The Prehistoric Museum at College of Eastern Utah has outgrown its existing space. Recipient of an ever-increasing collection of fossil specimens, particularly little-known and exciting Jurassic and Triassic finds, the Museum hopes to reinvent itself and emerge as a leading facility with an amazing educational collection. Jan Coleman’s vision for the new facility includes multiple opportunities to travel vertically up and down between floors alongside towering dinosaur specimens, and a rich open-storage collection on the lowest level below the specimens where visitors can browse again and again.
Jan also introduced the idea of a stylized ‘story plaza’ as an entry element outside the Museum’s new front door, where adults can rest and children can run off some energy by climbing on, and exploring within, a recreated ‘topographic map’ of the surrounding region and its numerous offerings. In this way, people of all ages will have already previewed the Museum’s storyline before ever setting foot inside its doors, thus arriving primed with anticipation.
A three-dimensional Story Plaza encapsulates the surrounding environment from which the client’s prehistoric collections were drawn, previewing the museum experience and allowing children to safely engage in energetic full body exploration. Courtesy The Portico Group.
