A New Federal Exhibit Facility: Liberty Bell Center

The design of this new facility to house a revered American artifact demands a deeply American building, seamlessly connected to its historic park setting in a historic Pennsylvania city and to our collective memory of the events that took place there. Opened in October 2003, the $11 million Federal facility provides a new and larger home for the historic American artifact, and an exciting and authentic visitor experience.

While providing an urban edge to the west and a cornerstone to the park’s mall, the facility offers a sylvan pavilion to park visitors. A contemporary building, yet resonant with the architectural traditions of eighteenth and nineteenth-century Pennsylvania, the brick, stone and glass building is an open, visible place of gathering and community. Through its massing and human scale, it is a fitting companion to nearby historic buildings and the park. The story of the artifact and the personal encounter with this transcendent object involves three architectural elements: a covered outdoor interpretive area, an elongated rectilinear exhibit hall and a tapered cubic volume housing the artifact chamber.

The brick and stone of the park’s arbor way and the sun-shading trellises that border the facility become the building’s enclosure through the addition of glass walls and metal-clad wood roof. Knitted together by a skeletal structure of metal columns, beams and trellis armature, the park, the building and the exhibit form a seamless and unified whole. The visitor moving from outside to inside experiences the story and encounters the artifact. The story unfolds along an undulating wall of granite. Its making, its significance and role in American history, and its universal meaning are presented though a series of interactive and informative exhibits mounted on metal armatures displaying a diverse array of text, images and artifacts. There are places for foreign visitors to hear the story in their language and for large groups to assemble for special presentations.

The inclined floor plane of the exhibit area conforms to the contour of the exterior landscape visible through generous windows opening onto the park. The visitors’ path rises gently to a plateau where the artifact in its chamber resides. Here visitors see it against the compelling backdrop of a principal historic building and its spire, trees and sky in a pristine eighteenth century setting. The expansive architectural volume of the chamber enables a great window to cement the intimate relationship of historic building and artifact, and makes the artifact’s importance explicit.

On the exterior, a delicately detailed scrim of sunlight-controlling vanes shelters the chamber’s glass vitrine enclosure. The extended roof plane visors the enclosure, protecting against the south sun. Cupped walls of white stone embrace the artifact, creating an intimate environment for both individuals and larger audiences to reflect on its meaning. The artifact is visible from the outside at a special viewing window on the park side of the chamber. Place, architecture and icon join to create a moving and memorable experience. Visitors exit the chamber along the final segment of the undulating granite wall, emerging from the south end of the building, well positioned to continue their visit to the principal historic building nearby, the park, and the historic city.