A Faithful Education
by Jonathan McGaha | 27 December 2012 12:00 am
Yellowstone National Park is home to nearly 60 percent of the world’s geysers. Of those, Old Faithful erupts more frequently than any of the other big geysers. Erupting on average every 90 minutes, it spits boiling water 145 feet into the Wyoming sky. Now visitors can learn more about Old Faithful, with the new $27 million Old Faithful Visitor Education Center, funded through the Yellowstone Park Foundation. Serving nearly 3 million visitors a year, the 26,000-square-foot center features an exhibit hall, auditorium, research library, multipurpose classroom and educational bookstore.
Designed by Christopher Chadbourne & Associates, Boston, along with exhibit fabricator/engineer Pacific Studio, Seattle, the 5,600-square-foot exhibit hall showcases unique educational displays, including a diorama demonstrating the inner workings of the earth’s hot spots, such as volcanoes, shifting tectonic plates, earthquakes and hot springs.
To highlight the display, the designers wanted the space to feel open, yet intimate and high quality. A tall, almost transparent ceiling was desired to help support the dramatic lighting replicating the blue Wyoming sky.
The ceiling’s role became integral to the project’s concept, as it needed to be a dropped design to accommodate the sprinkler, HVAC, electrical and lighting system, yet see-through to avoid the confined feeling typical of ceilings that mask mechanical equipment. 
Due to the size of the exhibit room, which is approximately 87 feet by 42 feet, the ceiling model required a material that was open enough to promote airflow, sturdy enough to accommodate access for maintenance, and flexible enough to be installed in sections, including a curved portion. Additionally, it had to possess sufficient transparency to diffuse the LED lighting system that was designed to imitate the natural hue of a typical Wyoming day. The ceiling also plays a large role in showcasing the dioramic scale model as a backdrop for environmental lighting that floods the display like the sun that permeates the park most every day.
Prompted by Pacific Studio, the project team chose an open grid ceiling fabricated with wire mesh panels made from Tampa, Fla.-based McNICHOLS’ Techna 8160+ Stainless Steel 304. The 70 mesh panels are cut into 16 different sizes and shapes, ranging from 4 by 6 feet to 5 by 10 feet. Each panel, which has 81 percent open area, is secured in a cold-rolled steel angle frame that is suspended from the building’s upper structure.
Jon Harmon, project manager at Pacific Studio, explains that the wire mesh satisfied the project’s functional and aesthetic requirement. Pacific Studio set the pre-cut mesh into custom steel angle frames, then welded it into a frame for strength and rigidity.
With help from contractor Swank Enterprises, Valier, Mont., the panels were installed below the sprinkler system, allowing the wire mesh to obscure the mechanical features without inhibiting the sprinkler from doing its job. “Once they were installed, people could actually walk on the panels to access HVAC and lighting above the panels,” Harmon says.
The frames are suspended via threaded rods using ceiling handles and tabs welded onto the steel frame. As a safeguard during a seismic event, each frame is reinforced with sway bracing cross-rods.
Inspired by the novel wire mesh ceiling, the park foundation asked Pacific Studio to incorporate the material into the decorative supports for seven graphical panels and two flat screen monitors in the lobby. The addition created continuity with the center’s ceiling and served as an artistic backdrop for the storyboards that chronicle the story of Yellowstone’s hydrothermal wonders
Old Faithful Visitor Education Center, Yellowstone National Park, Wyo.
Architect: Christopher Chadbourne & Associates, Boston
General contractor: Swank Enterprises, Valier, Mont.
Exhibit fabricator/engineer: Pacific Studio, Seattle
Metal mesh: McNICHOLS Co., Tampa, Fla., www.mcnichols.com
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