Harley-Davidson Museum

Milwaukee, WI, United States

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Harley-Davidson Museum

Milwaukee, WI, United States

Firm

Biber Architects

Type

Commercial › Retail Exhibition Center
Hospitality + Sport › Bar/Nightclub
Cultural › Museum

YEAR

2008

SIZE

1,000,000 +

The recently opened Harley-Davidson Museum designed by James Biber showcases the history, culture and engineering of a uniquely American
icon. Occupying a 20-acre reclaimed industrial site in the heart of
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the museum design presents a new paradigm for the
integration of a corporate museum into its local community, while also
clearly presenting the Harley-Davidson design story to a global
community of enthusiasts.Conceived of as a factory typology
within an urban fabric, the 130,000- square-foot museum design consists
of three interconnected buildings with space for permanent and
temporary exhibitions, an extensive archive of motorcycles and
Harley-related memorabilia, a restaurant, a café and a retail store.
Inspired by the bike rallies in places like Sturgis and Laconia, the
museum has both indoor and outdoor components that create a new
neighborhood within the city and allow for a continuously changing
street display of visitors' bikes. The factory typology extends to the
interior, which has an exposed structure and is organized with large
open spaces, lined with mezzanines and four large towers. The
museum's permanent exhibition was developed in close coordination with
the architecture. The specially engineered displays include a massive
cantilevered "bridge" that rises up from the ground floor to display
stunt motorcycles, an engine room displaying 30 engines, and a replica
of a board track, a death-defying wooden racing course from the 1920s.
Platforms, railings, display cases and slatted walls refer to the
industrial vernacular of simple machinery and the world of the garage
and factory.