Visitor Center | LaCrosse WA

LaCrosse WA | Visitor Center and Ice Age Flood Exhibit

Interior Design students in the third year studio developed design ideas for a temporary Visitor Center and Ice-Age Flood Exhibit in LaCrosse WA. Landscape Architecture students acted as consultants for site features. The site is owned by the LaCrosse Community Pride (LCP) community organization. LCP is working to stabilize the basalt rock buildings also on the site. Click on an image to view larger or to download a PDF.

design01 \| Filardo This site will have a little bit of everything. The ice age created many different landscapes. Volcanoes left basalt formations. Glaciers melted and refroze repeatedly creating scablands. Large boulder erratics the size of houses were carried by the floods like pebbles. Canyons striped with various rocks formed from the constant buildup of sediment and water erosion. Shore lines and ripple marks cross regions and are evident at incredible heights.	design02 \| Bueno Metcalf Swaney The Lacrosse and Missoula Floods visitors center was inspired by the floods themselves and the immense impact that they had on the region. The scale and severity of the Missoula Floods molded and shaped the landscapes that are seen in this region and west to the ocean over al long period of time. The graphic images were derived from the physical topography that surrounds Lacrosse.	design03 \| Fontana The inspiration concept came from the diagram of ice crystals and basalt rock. The Ice Age Flood Exhibit & LaCrosse Visitor Center take the shape of the ice crystals.
design04 \| Andresen - Thiesen This Visitor Center is inspired by the geological transformation due to the force of nature and the power of the Missoula Flood. The site design is paired with the historic development of the city of LaCrosse and the value of unity connection within the community.	design05 \| Ellsworth The geographical landscape of the Pacific Northwest was molded by liquid basaltic magma rising up through fissures and extruding at the surface of the earth, forming a wall of basalt drumheller channels into the canyons of the Columbia River creating linear patterns and abstract, geometric shapes. These patterns and shapes can be seen being repeated through the melting of the melted ice floods and cracking dry magma.	design06 \| Banick This Visitor Center is designed around the concept of exposed layers caused by the flood. The color scheme was developed around the idea of the shadows on each layer of exposed earth and the contrast between each of the layers. The accent colors were chosen based on ice and water. Ice has a cyan tint where the dark blue represents deep water of the ice-age flood.
design07 \| Page - Shorett The design for the La Crosse visitor center/ museum is derived from the idea of the Missoula ice age floods. The idea is based on the ever changing landscape throughout the floods, along with how the landscape has changed since then. The design concept for the visitor center/ museum came from the changing landscape that is constantly in flux. Rusted signage and natural landscape features are encouraged to age and morph the site over time.	design08 \| Rattanak Leng A glacial erratic left by floods during late ice age inspired this design. The site is designed to look like a glacial erratic field in the center of the town, and the cargo box is designed to look like a giant rock sit at the center of the field. The concept is to remind the visitors that this town is a part of the region which formed by flood and show the topic of the exhibition inside the cargo.	design09 \| Megan McCoy Submerged in the remaining waters of the Ice Age Lake Missoula Floods, visitors experience and understand the geological impact of glacial flooding on the LaCrosse and surrounding area. Artificial mammoth tusks lead the way from the road and parking lot to the visitor center; a 3-D mammoth tusk within the exhibit allows visitors to interact and feel the visual and physical mass of a mammoth as if they were swimming with the animals caught in the ancient flood.
design10 \| Drugge - Connell The LaCrosse Visitor Center demonstrates the connection between the roots and the grass came from the background of Lacrosse. The word ice age led to flood then to the Palouse landscape and to the conceptual inspiration that forms this adaptive design project. GROWTH, CONTINUOUS, LASTING are three key aspects of the concept that repeat through out the design. Occupants are drawn to the creative spaces guided by lighting through the adjacent walls.	design11 \| Foster Golden Greene Our concept for the LaCrosse Visitor Center and Ice Age Flood exhibit was the connection between the Ice Age Flood and how it created the LaCrosse community. The jagged edges of the site relate to the glaciers that were holding back the flood that eventually gave way. The visitor center is to provide visitors with the historical facts of the ice age floods and the town that stands there today, LaCrosse.	design12 \| Letterman Manley Storch The project is located in Lacrosse Washington. The Visitor Center focuses on the regional geology shaped by the Missoula Floods. These floods started as a very large glacier that covered a wide area in the Pacific Northwest. Over time the ice began to melt and the massive lake that the glacier was damming broke loose. This huge volume of water then flooded into Idaho, Washington and Oregon.
design13 \| Herz Nguyen Pasic The basalt columns are in a hexagon shape and are connected to one another in columns and represents the La Crosse community. Everyone in the community is linked together as the basalt columns are attached and support each other. The basalt is also a strong and sturdy material that can hold up for a long time.	design14 \| Meza Short The LaCrosse Visitor Center demonstrates the connection between the roots and the grass came from the background of Lacrosse. The word ice age led to flood then to the Palouse landscape and to the conceptual inspiration that forms this adaptive design project. GROWTH, CONTINUOUS, LASTING are three key aspects of the concept that repeat through out the design. Occupants are drawn to the creative spaces guided by lighting through the adjacent walls.

design01 \| Filardo This site will have a little bit of everything. The ice age created many different landscapes. Volcanoes left basalt formations. Glaciers melted and refroze repeatedly creating scablands. Large boulder erratics the size of houses were carried by the floods like pebbles. Canyons striped with various rocks formed from the constant buildup of sediment and water erosion. Shore lines and ripple marks cross regions and are evident at incredible heights.	design02 \| Bueno Metcalf Swaney The Lacrosse and Missoula Floods visitors center was inspired by the floods themselves and the immense impact that they had on the region. The scale and severity of the Missoula Floods molded and shaped the landscapes that are seen in this region and west to the ocean over al long period of time. The graphic images were derived from the physical topography that surrounds Lacrosse.	design03 \| Fontana The inspiration concept came from the diagram of ice crystals and basalt rock. The Ice Age Flood Exhibit & LaCrosse Visitor Center take the shape of the ice crystals.
design04 \| Andresen - Thiesen This Visitor Center is inspired by the geological transformation due to the force of nature and the power of the Missoula Flood. The site design is paired with the historic development of the city of LaCrosse and the value of unity connection within the community.	design05 \| Ellsworth The geographical landscape of the Pacific Northwest was molded by liquid basaltic magma rising up through fissures and extruding at the surface of the earth, forming a wall of basalt drumheller channels into the canyons of the Columbia River creating linear patterns and abstract, geometric shapes. These patterns and shapes can be seen being repeated through the melting of the melted ice floods and cracking dry magma.	design06 \| Banick This Visitor Center is designed around the concept of exposed layers caused by the flood. The color scheme was developed around the idea of the shadows on each layer of exposed earth and the contrast between each of the layers. The accent colors were chosen based on ice and water. Ice has a cyan tint where the dark blue represents deep water of the ice-age flood.
design07 \| Page - Shorett The design for the La Crosse visitor center/ museum is derived from the idea of the Missoula ice age floods. The idea is based on the ever changing landscape throughout the floods, along with how the landscape has changed since then. The design concept for the visitor center/ museum came from the changing landscape that is constantly in flux. Rusted signage and natural landscape features are encouraged to age and morph the site over time.	design08 \| Rattanak Leng A glacial erratic left by floods during late ice age inspired this design. The site is designed to look like a glacial erratic field in the center of the town, and the cargo box is designed to look like a giant rock sit at the center of the field. The concept is to remind the visitors that this town is a part of the region which formed by flood and show the topic of the exhibition inside the cargo.	design09 \| Megan McCoy Submerged in the remaining waters of the Ice Age Lake Missoula Floods, visitors experience and understand the geological impact of glacial flooding on the LaCrosse and surrounding area. Artificial mammoth tusks lead the way from the road and parking lot to the visitor center; a 3-D mammoth tusk within the exhibit allows visitors to interact and feel the visual and physical mass of a mammoth as if they were swimming with the animals caught in the ancient flood.
design10 \| Drugge - Connell The LaCrosse Visitor Center demonstrates the connection between the roots and the grass came from the background of Lacrosse. The word ice age led to flood then to the Palouse landscape and to the conceptual inspiration that forms this adaptive design project. GROWTH, CONTINUOUS, LASTING are three key aspects of the concept that repeat through out the design. Occupants are drawn to the creative spaces guided by lighting through the adjacent walls.	design11 \| Foster Golden Greene Our concept for the LaCrosse Visitor Center and Ice Age Flood exhibit was the connection between the Ice Age Flood and how it created the LaCrosse community. The jagged edges of the site relate to the glaciers that were holding back the flood that eventually gave way. The visitor center is to provide visitors with the historical facts of the ice age floods and the town that stands there today, LaCrosse.	design12 \| Letterman Manley Storch The project is located in Lacrosse Washington. The Visitor Center focuses on the regional geology shaped by the Missoula Floods. These floods started as a very large glacier that covered a wide area in the Pacific Northwest. Over time the ice began to melt and the massive lake that the glacier was damming broke loose. This huge volume of water then flooded into Idaho, Washington and Oregon.
design13 \| Herz Nguyen Pasic The basalt columns are in a hexagon shape and are connected to one another in columns and represents the La Crosse community. Everyone in the community is linked together as the basalt columns are attached and support each other. The basalt is also a strong and sturdy material that can hold up for a long time.	design14 \| Meza Short The LaCrosse Visitor Center demonstrates the connection between the roots and the grass came from the background of Lacrosse. The word ice age led to flood then to the Palouse landscape and to the conceptual inspiration that forms this adaptive design project. GROWTH, CONTINUOUS, LASTING are three key aspects of the concept that repeat through out the design. Occupants are drawn to the creative spaces guided by lighting through the adjacent walls.

RURAL COMMUNITIES

DESIGN INITIATIVE

LaCrosse WA | Visitor Center and Ice Age Flood Exhibit

design01 | Filardo

design02 | Bueno Metcalf Swaney

design03 | Fontana

The inspiration concept came from the diagram of ice crystals and basalt rock. The Ice Age Flood Exhibit & LaCrosse Visitor Center take the shape of the ice crystals.

design04 | Andresen - Thiesen

This Visitor Center is inspired by the geological transformation due to the force of nature and the power of the Missoula Flood. The site design is paired with the historic development of the city of LaCrosse and the value of unity connection within the community.

design05 | Ellsworth

design06 | Banick

design07 | Page - Shorett

design08 | Rattanak Leng

design09 | Megan McCoy

design10 | Drugge - Connell

design11 | Foster Golden Greene

design12 | Letterman Manley Storch

design13 | Herz Nguyen Pasic

design14 | Meza Short