The Mildred Westervelt Warner Transportation Museum | City of Tuscaloosa
Starting from scratch, Kelton and Eclectic Group worked with the City of Tuscaloosa, the University of Alabama, the Alabama Historical Commission, and special interest groups to renovate a historic building and turn it into the Mildred Westervelt Warner Transportation Museum. They also worked with local historians to source relevant artifacts to populate the artifact cases on opening day.
The building was designed as a bath house, with boys to the left and girls to the right, select walls had to be removed to turn the building into a functioning museum space. Because of the historic nature of the building – the Queen City Bath House – the design plan and story line had to be approved by the Alabama Historical Commission.
Kelton and Blasingame determined traffic flow, case design, interactive design, graphic design, and the story line. They also did photographic research and sourced all images used on graphic panels. Faye Goolrick was brought in to grab the tiger by the tail and write the story line. Because the project was funded by a Department of Transportation grant, the AHC also had to sign off on the story line, concurring that all exhibits dealt with the subject of transportation.
The AHC requested an exhibit about the history of the pool, its architect, and the original design.
In addition, interactive iPads are included in each area to help museum staff add content in the future.
