'Museums have to do more than house exhibits'

	‘Great design is not the only answer. It’s really what you program in the museum that drives an audience to that building.’ —Dennis Barrie

BD+C: What are the big trends in museum design?

Dennis Barrie: The explosion of museum projects. Cultural tourism is big all over the world. You see museums popping up everywhere. People are seeing museums as economic generators. Then there's the idea that museums have to do more than house exhibits. They must function 16 hours a day, for all sorts of events, and be much more open to their public. Another trend is going for an architectural statement that makes your building stand out.

BD+C: The so-called “Bilbao effect”?

DB: Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum Bilbao truly did have an impact across the world. The idea of putting a first-rate museum in the heart of a declining city was brilliant, but the city also invested in the subways, in the river view. They used design to create a much more interesting venue for visitors from around the world.

Look what the Pompidou did for the center of Paris or the Tate Modern in London—the place is just swarming with people. But in most of these “starchitect” projects, there's a burst in attendance, and then it fades. Santiago Calatrava's addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum, Zaha Hadid's Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati—the effect was all short-term. Great design is not the only answer. It's really what you program in the museum that drives an audience to that building.

BD+C: What are today's museum revenue generators?

DB: Museums have to rethink how to finance their operations. Historically, they looked to private individuals and government funding and they ran deficits. Museum stores are cash cows, but they have to be pretty big, not a cubbyhole with bookshelves. The items have to be visible and easy to buy. The store has to be accessible without paid admission. If you can have street frontage, that's even better.

Museum food service was notoriously terrible. Spy was among the first museums to see there was a market for fine dining. The more time people spend in your museum, the more money they'll spend. Extending their stay is an important part of museum design.

BD+C: What about special events?

DB: Singles nights, sleepovers with the kids, corporate parties—they're some of the biggest revenue generators. It's that exclusive access when the crowds aren't there.

You also have to think about the backup to all those functions. Pei didn't want a kitchen in the Rock Hall, and we had to bring food in and heat it up on a loading dock, in the middle the winter, in Cleveland!

BD+C: Do traveling exhibits work?

DB: A Titanic or Body Worlds or Tutankhamen can generate huge crowds, 500,000 to a million people. Most museums don't have the space to handle such an exhibit. You can do some temporary exhibits with only 4,000 sf, although most require 8,000-10,000 sf.

BD+C: How about using electronic media?

DB: It has an ever-growing impact on museum design and display. You need interpretation for the public, and if you can do that with technology, all the better. But content is everything. You can have big screens and it's boring as hell.

BD+C: What about the physical environment?

DB: It's critical. The reason the Spy Museum works so well is that it's so immersive. It's only 20,000 sf, but you feel you've been in this huge space. Most people spend two hours there. The museum should speak for itself. You don't have to go overboard. Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum in Berlin is an example where the architecture overwhelmed the exhibits. The building won and the museum lost.

BD+C: What are some of your favorite museums?

DB: The Teatro-Museo Dali in Figueres, Spain, where Dali was born. From the minute you see this old theater building you start to laugh. Inside, the sense of Dali is everywhere. It's just outrageous.

For the Eric Satie House, in Honfleur, Normandy, they took two old houses and interpreted the composer's music visually. There's a giant dancing bear, a merry-go-round, a giant monkey. There's a white piano in a white room. I have never had a better time in a museum.

For a pdf of Dennis Barrie's “Reinventing the Museum: A New-Model Formula for Success,” visit: www.BDCnetwork.com/contents/pdfs/museum.pdf.