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PITTSBURGH MUSEUM OF STEEL
PITTSBURGH MUSEUM OF STEEL
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Other Projects by Timothy Pilla
PITTSBURGH MUSEUM OF STEEL
Firm
PMOS|pittsburgmuseumofsteel interactionCATALYSTThe museum of steel design acts as a catalyst for interaction among the cultural, historical, and natural landscapes of its context. Elevated walkways tie into a public transportation hub, reach out to surrounding communities, and connect to the future pedestrian bridge in order to funnel visitors. The broad horizontal form of the building establishes an array of interior and exterior spaces to facilitate social interaction and promote cultural convergence. The combination of elevated walkways and the building complex reinforces the site’s historical content through views and interactions. The whole system glides lightly across the site which has been converted into a public park, overwhelming the viewer with vistas of the landscape and all its beauty. Steel is the thread used to weave all of the elements together into an interactive fabric. The expansive character of the site and the abundance of natural and historical destinations suggests a scheme that allows a thorough experience of the entire site. Elevated walkways facilitate the vast experience and allow all of the destinations of the site to be accessible at all times, even during times of high flooding. By extending to the adjacent communities, connecting to the future pedestrian bridge, and incorporating itself into a transportation hub along the railway, the elevated walkways create a sustainable matrix to promote social momentum. The walkways also interact with a strip of trees that ties into the vegetative core that runs along the rivers edge in order to bring scale and order to the site. Additionally, the vegetative core balances some of the environmental effects of the steel production required for the site and building development. The museum complex is a prominent destination amidst the entire site experience and lays the groundwork for endless possibilities. The building form weaves interior and exterior spaces to encourage curiosity and intrigue the viewer. The large, open atrium space unifies the whole system and creates an expansive realm where art exhibits, conventions, large parties, and steel symposiums can take place. Additionally, the central core includes a large, versatile auditorium on the west, which frames a view of the furnace, and a restaurant overlooking the Monongahela on the upper floor. The remaining programmatic spaces are molded into individual volumes that penetrate through the central core and reach out towards different areas of the site. On the first floor, the volume of the demonstration gallery demands attention by exposing the expressions of light created from the steel processes through reveals between large steel wrapping panels. The vertical procession happens via stairs and ramps that weave through the vast atrium space interacting with the changing gallery and administration volumes before reaching the climax—a series of exhibition spaces that storm across the space and extend out toward the river. The fragmented quality of the building relates to the totemic character of the Carrie Furnace, while the visitation processional relates to the steel making process. Together the elevated walkways and the building complex capitalize on the viewers’ experiential process to incorporate a consistent history of steel on the site. This is achieved by framing views of the surrounding bridges, exaggerating the features of the Carrie Furnace, exposing the steel making process, and overwhelming the viewer with points of extreme exposure. The scheme ends up submerging the viewer in an environment of steel to intrigue a positive reaction to the entire history of steel, from its conception to the present. Steel is used throughout the project because the design concept requires steel in order to successfully achieve its goals. The goals include a very light impact on the land, nearly unaltered views across the natural landscape, and achieving intriguing forms that exaggerate the normal application capabilities of steel and relate to the history of the steel. To achieve these goals numerous different textures, patinas, and finishes of steel are used throughout the complex. The atrium volume is composed of refined stainless steel and glass, which is punctured by the other volumes of steel in different raw states. The situation enables a unique differentiation between the interior (controlled environment) reactions and exterior (natural) reactions of the material. Additionally, other spaces incorporate textures like corrugation and perforation in order to emphasize the characteristics of the space in which they are applied. In the end, the building and site become as much an exhibition of the types, qualities, characteristics, applications and history of steel as they do promote cultural interaction and create an environment for the display of art and sculpture.
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