Open-Air-Museum

Southern Illinois is in a region that is heavily forested and whose climate varies greatly throughout the year. This open-air museum will be built in the Wayne Fitzgerrel State Park at Rend Lake. The intent of this museum is to relate to the existing site through its materiality so visitors feel as if it’s in a natural setting. Since this region experiences a wide range of temperature change throughout the year, the museum will not always be accessible by boat. Although boats will be the main access to this museum, a pathway was added to access each exhibit when the lake is frozen during the winter months. This open-air museum will exhibit six boathouses, including the museum itself. Visitors may enter the museum either by land or water. The main focus of this museum will be by boat so each boathouse and the museum must include docking for boats other than those supplied by the museum. Even though the boathouses in this museum were inhabited in their original geological locations they will be vacant here to serve the purposes of this museum.