GWWO worked closely with the museum, the county’s board of directors, community members, and interpretive designers to develop a vision for a new Yellowstone Gateway Museum that will improve the visitor experience, inspire curiosity and learning, contribute to the storytelling, and preserve the collection. The goal of achieving accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums also informed the design process.
The study began with an assessment of the current building’s existing conditions and creation of a program of spaces for the museum that was developed through multiple community meetings, surveys, benchmarking, and visitation calculations. The result of these steps was determination that the existing facility could not meet the museum’s future needs. As such, the decision to explore building a new museum on an alternate site was made. The design team developed a site analysis tool for use in evaluating potential sites and four conceptual designs for the new museum were prepared, with the preferred design option further developed to support planning and fundraising efforts.