Reimagined Yorktown Victory Center Will Present Comprehensive Picture Of Revolution

By Amber Lester Kennedy Wednesday, November 10, 2010

 

Tourists interested in learning about the Revolutionary War can learn about its beginnings at Colonial Williamsburg. They can see battleground at Saratoga and the encampment at Valley Forge. They can peer into Independence Hall from behind velvet ropes. They can snap pictures of the Liberty Bell.

What they can’t do is visit one museum devoted to telling the story of the Revolution, from start to finish, in an interactive and comprehensive way. But in the next eight years, the Yorktown Victory Center will be reborn as that museum, featuring new galleries, interactive exhibits, newly acquired artifacts and an expanded living-history program.

The design and exhibit plans for the new 80,000-square-foot Yorktown Victory Center were unveiled Tuesday at the fall meeting of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation at the Hospitality House in Williamsburg. Patrick Gallagher, of the Bethesda, Md.-based Gallagher & Associates, was on hand to explain the vision for the new museum, which he says will tell, “one of the most important untold stories on the East Coast today.”

Gallagher & Associates is designing the exhibition galleries and theaters, which Gallagher likened to determining what story to tell and how to tell it. Westlake Reed Leskosky of Cleveland, Ohio, and Washington, D.C., with Hopke & Associates of Williamsburg as associate architects, developed the architectural design for the site.

In 2008, the Virginia General Assembly authorized the funding for the project, estimated to cost $46 million. The General Assembly has approved Virginia Public Building Authority bond funding for the project in the 2010-12 biennium, contingent on how much debt can be incurred. The private fundraising arm of the organization, the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, Inc., is working to raise private funds to support acquisition of artifacts. Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation spokeswoman Deborah Padgett said when the funding becomes available, the project will be only a few months away from breaking ground; the Foundation hopes to get started in 2011 and a project plan estimates full completion by 2018.

 

The new center will be located adjacent to the Yorktown Battlefield, with its entrance facing Water Street. The current building will be in use during construction, but will eventually be demolished. The new Federal-style architecture is inspired by the work of Thomas Jefferson, featuring arched doorways, traditional brick and a loggia. Inside, the exhibition design will be customized to suit the five permanent exhibition areas, focusing on the British Empire; the changing relationship between America and Britain; the Revolution; the new nation; and the American people. In addition, a changing exhibit space will be constructed with a clear ceiling, allowing designers to build “architecture within architecture,” Gallagher said.

 

Every space will be designed to put the visitors in the era. In the British Empire exhibit, for example, guests will be greeted by a new acquisition — a coronation portrait of King George III — in a room with a high ceiling and decorative crown molding characteristic of the grand homes of the period. But when guests move ahead to the exhibit about the changing relationship, they’ll enter a recreated port city, complete with storefronts to explore.

“Learning happens much more dynamically if they are put in that period of time,” Gallagher said.

Gallagher emphasized the importance of producing an interactive experience for guests, who are increasingly tech-savvy and intergenerational. With that in mind, each exhibit will have engaging displays, such as an interactive battle station. A circular movie theater will produce a “4-D” experience, jostling guests’ seats as they witness the Siege of Yorktown.

The outdoor Living History program will also be enhanced. The existing farm will transition from post-war to the Revolutionary War era to showcase the lives of the families at home during wartime. The farmhouse will also be expanded and a building representing slave quarters will be constructed. The encampment will be relocated and expanded to include more space for firing demonstrations and military drills.

Finally, the new building will include an education center for group visits, a new theater that doubles as an after-hours event room, and additional meeting and event space.

After the presentation, Sue Gerdelman, president of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, Inc., said she was so excited she’d “like to see this whole thing rise out of the ground tomorrow!” Although the museum is still far from opening, the foundation did hire a new curator to plan the media elements of the new galleries. David Voelkel, most recently consulting curator at Ash Lawn-Highland, will work on the planned interactive exhibits, video presentations, theater experiences and more.