To Build a Museum

The day has finally come. We say that a lot around here. But this time, it means that the museum is really being installed. The pieces have arrived from the East Coast, along with the crew to assemble it. And up it goes. Here are a few photos of the first stages of installation.

The Final Review

Quatrefoil, the designer of our museum, has delivered the final graphic plans to us at the BWAMM, and it's now our turn to review them for approval. They patiently await our comments, and our signatures.

Thanks to Donald Tallman and our friends at the Colorado Railroad Museum we were able to focus for our initial review amongst the rich woodwork of the "96 Car." The rail car was formerly a turn-of-the-century businessman's car, complete with dining room (seen here), kitchen, meeting rooms, and bedrooms.

Museum Director Niña Johnson and Development Coordinator Kathy Dremann are seen here working hard. Note the large bag of chocolate.

The review continues...

More Fab Pics!

Construction of the museum continues to move along steadily here in Golden. Meanwhile, at the design studios of Quatrefoil in Maryland, pieces of the museum are being fabricated. Here are some more photos of the fabrication process of the reader rails.

Fab Pics!

We've got fab pics! As in pictures of fabrication, courtesy of the production team at Quatrefoil.

Kristy Judd, executive director of the Colorado Mountain Club, has said "If you love something long enough, it becomes real." Well, the construction is well under way and fabrication has begun. Soon, the two elements will converge and--Voila!--we'll have ourselves a museum. A real, honest-to-goodness museum. See here:

Design of the museum

The design and development of the Bradford Washburn American Mountaineering Museum (BWAMM) is well under way. Working with Quatrefoil, a design firm located in Laurel, Maryland, the museum staff has put together a spectacular design for the exhibit hall. Complementing the amazing collection of artifacts will be design features specific to the world of mountaineering. Upon entering the museum, visitors will walk down and over a crevasse. Faux rock formations will line the walls of the hall, and mannequin climbers - both historic and modern - will literally climb the walls.

Quatrefoil is famous for having worked on the Sound Lab at Experience Music Project. Their list of design projects also includes some local museums of interest: Telluride Historical Museum, The Greeley History Museum, and they are currently working in Boulder on the Space Science Institute - Giant Worlds exhibit. See a complete list of their projects here.

The rock formations will be designed, built, and installed by Monolithic Sculpture Inc., a Boulder company known for creating climbing walls for the sport of rock climbing, as well as sculptural installations. They had previously built the climbing wall in the American Mountaineering Center, the building which the BWAMM will call home.

Now, some images of the future museum. (1) A drawing of the floorplan; (2) The Crevasse. Upon entering the mezzanine,visitors will look out over the exhibit hall. They will then walk down over the crevasse; (3) The view from the mezannine; (4) Drawings for the rock formation and climber display; (5) An example of one of the wall panels. Large, colorful, and beautiful, the hundreds of images that will be used in the design of the exhibit will come from such places as the National Geographic Society, the Denver Public Library's Western History Collection, Aurora Photos, as well as many other amazing photographers.