Yellowstone Gateway Museum

Livingston, MT

Details
Lobby, ticketing, orientation, gift shop, catering kitchen, support spaces
Permanent and changing exhibits, collections storage
Multipurpose/community space, research room, classrooms, family discovery space
Outdoor exhibits, amphitheater, outdoor classroom and community spaces, picnic areas
Owner
Yellowstone Gateway Museum
Services
Feasibility study, conditions assessment, programming, site analysis, conceptual design

The Yellowstone Gateway Museum tells the vast stories of Park County, Montana's cultural and natural history, its significance to pre-history, and its connection to Yellowstone National Park.

 

Located within a former school building, the current facility lacks the appropriate environmental conditions, accessibility, and flexibility to achieve the museum’s mission and meet the goals of expanded collection display, spaces for community use, and artifact storage.

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.

In the final developed concept, one wing of the building represents the migration paths of animals and humans through the Paradise and Shields Valleys, while the second wing focuses on the unique landscape, directing views to the Crazies and the Absaroka Mountain ranges. A sweeping site wall pierces the center of the building and continues through from west to east—serving as an orientation element for visitors on the west, creating a protected outdoor space for gathering on the east, and turning into a covered outdoor structure that displays artifacts. To reduce the noise from the highway and provide protection from the prevailing winds, an earth berm along the north side of the site wall creates enclosure for the outdoor space.