October 5, 2012

The Cade Museum of Creativity + Invention Unveils GWWO Architects' Design

The Cade Museum of Creativity + Invention Unveils GWWO Architects' Design

Following a national design competition, GWWO has been selected as architect for the new Cade Museum of Creativity + Invention in Gainesville, Florida.

The museum design was unveiled on the anniversary of Dr. Robert Cade's 85th birthday at the newly renovated Depot Building at Depot Park, which will serve as the Museum's site. Dr. Cade is most well-known for leading the University of Florida team that invented Gatorade®. The new museum, designed as a metaphor of the human brain, will be completed in phases. The first phase will be a 21,000-SF facility and is scheduled to be completed by 2015. Phase II will be an addition of 24,000-SF making the total museum 45,000-SF. The Cade Museum of Creativity + Invention unveiled the design for its new museum on Thursday evening during an event that commemorated Dr. Robert Cade—head of the University of Florida team which invented Gatorade®—and his family’s vision for the museum, on what would have been his 85th birthday.

GWWO was chosen as the architect for the museum following a nationwide design competition. “We are thrilled to be chosen for this exciting project, and look forward to collaborating with the Cade Museum to execute our joint vision for pivotal project”, says Alan Reed, GWWO Design Principal. “This is exactly what we do.” GWWO’s design of the new museum uniquely fulfills the mission of The Cade—a mission to create an educational, interactive, and collaborative destination that inspires creative thinking and purposeful invention for everyone who believes in the power of a great idea. The new museum, designed as a metaphor of the human brain, will be completed in phases. The first phase will be a 21,000-SF facility and is scheduled to be completed by 2015. Phase II will be an addition of 24,000-SF making the total museum 45,000-SF. The Cade Museum will host exhibits, terraces for teaching and special events as well as classrooms—all of which will extend off the Main Hall, a collaborative space serving as the center of the building. The museum will be located in Gainesville’s Depot Park, a newly reclaimed park which is currently being developed to include walking and bike paths and a children’s play area. Additionally, the new museum is adjacent to the newly renovated, historic Depot Building, which will house a restaurant and café area as well as community gathering space.

 

Design Concept “I am part of all that I have met; yet all experience is an arch where through gleams that untraveled world whose margin fades forever when I move.” – From Tennyson’s Ulysses GWWO’s design for the Cade Museum was inspired by this passage and conceived as a metaphor for the human brain. Just as experience fosters creativity, and creativity leads to invention, neurons in the brain grow and make new connections, in new and different ways, with every new experience. Like some of history’s greatest inventions that became platforms for future inventions, such as the world wide web making the creation of social networks and file sharing sites possible, the brain is where experiences are reformulated to create new ideas that in turn influence others—leading to invention. Similarly, the building is organized around one space—the Main Hall—where all experiences come together. Like Ulysses in Tennyson’s poem, this space is a part of all of the spaces in the museum, yet at the same time becomes the foundation upon which they are experienced. A distinguishable form, the Main Hall draws visitors in from Main Street with views into and through the museum.

It is clad in overlapping panels of textured metal, symbolic of ideas and experiences coming together, with the individual wedge-shaped galleries growing organically from its core. Inside, it is a vortex of creative energy. An oculus to the sky, symbolic of Tennyson’s “arch”, opens the space to the universe and all that it holds, while a prominent link to a large outdoor gathering plaza forges a connection with the rest of Depot Park. Inside, all galleries emanate from the Main Hall. Prominent within this space is the singular volume that houses the DaVinci Studio and the Tech Lab—this is the jewel of the museum, where creativity is explored and invention takes place. “… We are changed by each experience just as each person we react with is changed by us; … each new encounter frames the arch through which we see our world and therefore shapes what we will do and will become.” – Dr. Robert Cade Indeed, every experience makes us a different person and impacts those with which we interact. A visit to the new Cade Museum will offer insights into the spirit of creativity and invention, not just through the exhibits within, but through an interaction with the building itself.