Eskew Dumez Ripple

Louisiana State Museum

Louisiana State Museum
© Chris Rodriguez

LOUISIANA STATE MUSEUM

Eskew+Dumez+Ripple

ARCHITECTS
Eskew+Dumez+Ripple

CATEGORY
Museum

LOCATION
Baton Rouge, LA, USA

YEAR
2006

AREA
69000.0 ft2

MANUFACTURERS
Gordon

PHOTOGRAPHS
Chris Rodriguez

Text description provided by architect.

This museum is located on the Louisiana State Capitol grounds adjacent to the historic 1932 Capitol Tower and Gardens and presents to visitors a comprehensive history of the state.

Louisiana State Museum
© Chris Rodriguez
Louisiana State Museum
© Chris Rodriguez

The museum’s siting establishes biaxial symmetry with the State Library across the street and along the central organizing axis of the Capitol Master Plan, which terminates in the Tower to the north.

The museum can be approached from either of these two directions, where visitors converge at a large, covered terrace – a kind of over-scaled “porch”– that opens to the north to provide framed views of the Capitol and Gardens.

Louisiana State Museum
© Chris Rodriguez
Louisiana State Museum
© Chris Rodriguez

The envelope of the building is composed of cast-in-place concrete, glass and metal wall panels.

The building facades respond to the adjacent context and vary from highly articulated to the east (where the site abuts a residential neighborhood) to a more restrained and purposeful composition on the remaining facades within the park.

Louisiana State Museum
© Chris Rodriguez
Louisiana State Museum
© Chris Rodriguez

The metal wall panels on the west façade transition from solid to perforated at the entry terrace, where the simple cubic volume gestures toward the Capitol.

The perforated screen wall serves to filter the harsh western sun into the terrace and also acts as a scrim, changing in character from a shimmering, silvery object by day to an enigmatic, glowing presence at night.

Louisiana State Museum
© Chris Rodriguez


Louisiana State Museum
Site Plan
Louisiana State Museum
Plans


Louisiana State Museum
Drawing 01
Louisiana State Museum
Drawing 01


Louisiana State Museum
Sections

Eskew Dumez Ripple
T +1 504 5618686
Eskew Dumez Ripple
365 Canal St #3150, New Orleans, LA 70130, United States