An exhibition space designed for Baird Sampson Neuert’s French River Visitor Centre presents the historical context of the French River within the terraced path established by the architecture of the building. Flowing across an archetypal landscape of rock and water, the visitor experience is organized along a continuously inclined topography of found and constructed elements that establish an interpretive and spatial armature for the project, further interpreting the River’s descent from its headwaters at Lake Nippissing to its delta at Georgian Bay.

Built upon a ramping hall with a large overlook window cantilevered above the river, a collection of display surfaces is created to organise the space into the historic narrative of the collection.

Beginning with a large relief map, a screen wall backdrop picks up the vast collection of early aboriginal canoes, settler equipment, tools and exploration documents. A collection of glass partitions used for projection surfaces, video displays, text, image and artifact display are distributed throughout the gallery and punctuate key points in the narrative along the path.

The project received a Governor General’s Medal in 2010.

PUBLICATIONS
ArchDaily, Canadian Architect and the Canadian Museums Association