Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention

Gainesville, FL

Details: Permanent and traveling interactive exhibits; Classroom/multipurpose space, gift shop, outdoor event terraces; Designed to integrate future phases of gallery expansion; Sustainable design features

Owner: Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention

Services: Programming, Site Analysis, Fundraising Materials, Community Involvement, Cost Estimating, Sustainable Design, Interior Design, Full Design Services, Construction Administration, Building Information Modeling

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 surrounding Depot Park.

Many times during collaborative design charettes and early research phases, clients elaborate on stories that would not have been identified without them. Here, the client had a keen interest in the Fibonacci sequence and the Golden Spiral and their occurrence in nature and science. During design discussions the team was able to capitalize on this idea of Fibonacci in nature, and intertwine it into the form and story of the Cade Museum. The image to the right shows the Fibonacci spiral overlaid on the museum’s floor plan, illustrating how the building seems to unwind as the spiral unfolds, similar to leaves on a stem or the curve of a shell.