NASA’s Aerospace Exhibit Takes Flight
To commemorate the centennial anniversary of the Wright brothers first flight, NASA sponsored an exhibit entitled Aerospace Design: The Art of Engineering from NASA’s Aeronautical Research at the Art Institute of Chicago. This exhibit presents the history of aeronautically engineered forms as they relate to architecture and design, and features approximately 90 artifacts from NASA’s collection, including designs and models for wind tunnels and conceptual airplanes. Chicago Scenic was once again hired to help bring the project to life.

Designers Jeannie Gang and Yu-ting Chen of Studio Gang Architects came up with a design concept that would give the feeling of motion within the gallery instead of a more traditional exhibit. To accomplish this Chicago Scenic manufactured over 60 stacked curvilinear acrylic vitrines of varying sizes to house the artifacts and then mounted them to the walls according to Studio Gang’s design. The vitrines and artifacts were attached to the curved inside walls simulating a ripple effect as you walk through the gallery. Chicago Scenic also provided shelving, curved platforms, and oversized graphics for the exhibit.

Project Manager Gary Heitz worked with the Art Institute’s Curator John Zukoswky on the project as well as the museum’s Registrar, Darryl Green. Together they worked with Tony Springer and Tom Dixon of NASA who provided all of the artifacts and mounting plates for the show. CSSI’s Dave Duwell served as the job lead on the project and was assisted by Nick Levinsky onsite.

The exhibit, located in Kisho Kurokawa Architectural Gallery, runs until February 8, 2004, at which time it will be remounted at the AIA Octagon Museum in Washington, DC.

Fun Lego® Exhibit Begins National Tour
Chicago Scenic once again collaborated with Marketing Werks to produce a traveling promotional exhibit for Lego®. Project Manager Rick Boultinghouse worked closely with Senior Account Coordinator Lyndsay McNamara and Account Manager Eric Baker on the project, and CSSI’s Tim Steimle served as the job lead.

The mobile exhibit was designed with four play areas allowing for varying levels of involvement from participants. The first area was a construction zone that consisted of a skyline backdrop and a town made of legos, complete with a river, roads, and a baseball field. The participants sat around a custom-made hexagonal table created by Chicago Scenic and constructed Lego structures to add to the Lego-town. An emcee led the children through this play exercise and encouraged them to create elements of the story.

CSSI also created a raised platform with a podium to showcase the kids’ Lego creations. A Lego-judge assigned to this area critiqued the children’s projects. Behind the showcase area was a three-walled backdrop where digital photos taken of the Lego creations were attached to the wall with Velcro.

The third area Chicago Scenic created was a center showcase that displayed large-scale Lego structures created by designers from Lego. Around the base of these structures were child-sized seats and tubs filled with legos allowing children to create structures on their own in a quieter environment. The fourth area was a family challenge zone, a timed activity where an emcee facilitated families and groups working together to build structures.

The touring exhibit visited 20 cities for a weekend at a time and Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo hosted the exhibit over Labor Day weekend.

Hands on Habitat Grows to a New Level
Chicago Scenic partnered with the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum on an extension of their popular Hands on Habitat exhibit. The exhibit was specially designed for children ages three to seven as a place to learn about natural wetlands, prairie environments and the animals that inhabit them. With the help of Chicago Scenic, the museum literally took the exhibit to a whole new level.

When Mike Sarna, director of exhibits/designs, and Dawn Bennett, production supervisor of exhibits/designs, came to Chicago Scenic with a concept for the exhibit, the design team of Tom Ryan and Ryan Hall set to work creating a permanent three-story tree house and interactive games, and redesigning the original exhibit to make room for the new additions. All of the elements were specifically designed low to the ground to be easily accessible for children and to encourage adults to get down to their level to experience the exhibit. CSSI’s Ken Zommer served as the project manager, and Andy Lemerand and Mike Zaremba served as job leads.

All of the activities CSSI created for the expansion were desinged to help children discover the life cycle of trees and the animals that inhabit them. One activity called “What’s a Living Thing” helps children determine if something is alive or not by comparing living and inanimate objects. For this activity, CSSI created a large display panel with graphics of different objects and doors that reveal the answer when lifted.

For another interactive game, Chicago Scenic painted a mural on existing metal doors and provided magnetic objects that could be moved around into the different spaces that allowed children to place animals into their appropriate homes. The “Animal Apartments” activity, for which CSSI provided a faux hollowed out log, helps children discover all the different types of animals that might live in a log. For the “Prairie” activity, Chicago Scenic used an existing cave area in the exhibit and created a built-in periscope where kids go into the cave and look through a periscope to see what animals inhabited the prairie above.

The main focal point of the exhibit is a 35-foot-tall three-level tree house. On the tree’s first level, kids can discover how a tree absorbs nutrients from the ground with its roots through an interactive display, and can go down a worm-style slide. A giant climbing net sits between the first and second floors that allows children to climb from one level to another. The second level includes a hollowed-out tree trunk as well as a set of “bug binoculars” that allows them to see the world with segmented vision like a fly. The third level, which is handicap accessible, has a wind machine that the kids can operate to blow seedpods and leaves suspended from the tree, along with crank handles that move the wings of bees, butterflies, and dragonflies flying overhead.

The tree house was created from a steel structure that was assembled and welded by certified welder Andy Lemerand, and clad in wood by Mike Zaremba. The base of the tree was covered in carved foam and painted by Kevin Taylor. Throughout the installation process, which took about a month to complete, the museum allowed visitors to view the installation of the tree house from a second floor overlook.

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