The bell hooks Women’s and Non-Conforming Gender Center celebrates, honors, and documents the life and work of acclaimed intellectual, feminist theorist, cultural critic, artist and writer bell hooks. Located close to the Appalachian hills in Berea, Kentucky, visitors to the bell hooks Center have the opportunity to explore and visually engage with bell hooks’s work and learn about the history of women’s rights at the college.

The Center brings together academics with local community members to study, learn and engage in critical dialogue for women’s and gender issues and to share new ideas in a setting that is local and diverse.

Hilferty designed the new exhibits to graphically convey the needed sensitivity to encourage thought and discussion on the intersectionality of sex and gender.

The Ridges was a Kirkbride Plan mental hospital operated in Athens, Ohio, from 1874 until 1993. Today, The Ridges are a part of Ohio University and house the Kennedy Museum of Art as well as an auditorium, offices, and classrooms. Commissioned to enhance the outdoor visitor experience, Hilferty and Associates designed a series of trailheads, waysides, species panels, and trail wayfinding markers, each with a well-known nature quotation.

The K-25 History Center opened in February 2020. Working with Knoxville architects Smee+Busby, Hilferty designed the exhibits documenting the worlds largest building at the time and the history of the “Secret City.”

Located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the K-25 site was instrumental during World War II as part of the Manhattan Project. Constructed and operated in complete secrecy, thousands of people worked 24/7 to produce the uranium for the first Atomic Bomb.

Upon completion, the site will include the original K-25 footprint with wayside exhibits, a Viewing Tower representing a deconstructed version of the K-25 building, in addition to the History Center.

The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum shines a light on the heroic struggle of the Civil Rights Movement and provides a venue in which all Mississippians may come together to engage in public dialogue that fosters reconciliation, promotes healing, and illuminates a common path moving forward. This 17,000 sq. ft exhibition is part of the nation's first state-sponsored civil rights museum. Hilferty led the exhibit design and managed a variety of partners to implement the impressive exhibit fabrication and AV elements. 

Visitors witness the freedom struggle in eight interactive galleries featuring a wide range of dynamic images, structures, artifacts, and audiovisuals including lighting, sound, video, and touchscreens. Seven galleries encircle “This Little Light of Mine,” a dramatic interactive three-story sculpture meant to inspire contemplation and hope. The sculpture’s technology senses and responds to visitors, with singing voices swelling from a duet to a choir, as lights move across graceful spirals.

“[I have been to the] National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, The Human Rights Museum in Atlanta and the National African-American Museum in D.C. and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum is the best one yet.” - Loki Mulholland, filmmaker

In the year following the opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and its parent project, Two Mississippi Museums, the museum has garnered over 15 state, national and international awards. Hilferty lead the design and production team which included MDAH, Monadnock Media, CED, Transformit and ECI. Awards included:

Two Mississippi Museums

· Mississippi Historical Society Award of Merit, 2018

· Mississippi Heritage Trust Heritage Award for Excellence in Preservation Education, 2018

· Mississippi Magazine’s Best Museum, 2018

· Mississippi Tourism Association Travel Attraction of the Year Award, 2018

MCRM   

· American Alliance of Museums Media & Technology 

· Gold MUSE Award for Video, Film, and Film Animation (Chaney Goodman Schwerner Theater), 2018 

· Honorable Mention MUSE Award for Video, Film, and Film Animation (Freedom Summer Immersive Theater), 2018

· American Association for State and Local History’s– Leadership in History Award of Merit, 2018

· Visit Jackson SUMITT Award 2018 Attraction of the Year, 2018 

· Southeastern Museums Conference Excellence in Exhibition Competition, Silver Award in the over $1,000,000 category, 2018

· Southeastern Museums Conference Technology Competition, Gold Award in Gallery Installation for This Little Light of Mine, 2018

· Southeastern Museums Conference Technology Competition, Silver Award in Media Production for Freedom Summer Theater, 2018

· Award of Excellence, Industrial Fabrics Alliance International, International Achievements Awards

· 2018 Experience Design and Technology Awards, Silver Winner for “This Little Light of Mine” Sculpture 

Founded in 1855 in Berea, Kentucky, Berea College became the first non-segregated, co-educational college in the South, welcome both African Americans and women to study.

The Carter G. Woodson Center for Interracial Education at Berea College is a new center within the Alumni Building at Berea College. At the entrance multiple rear-lit acrylic panels composed of digitally composited images create a welcoming introduction to the Center. Inside, three dividing walls combine to form a 44’ long by 9’ tall timeline with dimensional images that document the history of Berea College.

The American Museum of Science and Energy has long been one of the top attractions in the Knoxville area so when they decided to relocate, the new offering had to be spectacular and open in less than a year. Hilferty accepted the challenge and delivered a sparkling new experience.

Visitors are introduced to the incredible cutting-edge science that has been a hallmark of Oak Ridge since the 1940s. Our exhibits help visitors understand complex concepts like nuclear particle imaging, supercomputing, super hydrophobic surfaces, energy generation and distribution, with interactivity and fun games.

The Flint Hills Discovery Center located in Manhattan, Kansas, inspires celebration, exploration, and care for the natural landscape of the region. Visitors are welcomed to the discovery center lobby where an interactive kiosk invites them to “Discover the Flint Hills.”

The “Flint Hills Story” overview exhibit traces the story from multiple perspectives. Overhead, images projected within the domed ceiling feature scenes of nature highlighting the beauty of the region. Exhibits use artifacts, documents, video, and multimedia to develop a multi-layered understanding of the ecology, history, and natural beauty of the region, starting with geologic time and concluding in the present. The immersive theatrical experience is multi-sensory allowing visitors see, hear, and feel the power and beauty of the Flint Hills.

After Ohio’s grand statehouse was meticulously restored to its pre-Civil War grandeur, the Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board commissioned Hilferty to create a plan for greeting visitors and interpreting the history of the building, of Ohio, and of the state government. This plan had to follow the preservation guidelines of a unique space featuring many design challenges, including dense vaulted masonry located in the lower floor of the historic statehouse.

Our dynamic design engages and informs visitors through a series of elegant multi-media presentation areas and interactive exhibits which explore the branches of government, how bills become laws, and a the “balance the budget” game.

Hilferty recently unveiled phase three of the exhibits, called the “Heart of Democracy,” which is comprised of quotations on the following themes: We the People, Democracy, Equality, Inalienable Rights, Knowledge, Justice, Tolerance, Liberty, and Participation.

Hilferty created a master plan and overarching vision for the Sam Noble Museum’s 45,000 square feet of exhibit space. Our staff worked closely with architects and museum staff to develop the best exhibit and building interface to showcase the museum’s magnificent collections. The museum’s glass walled elevator now stops just inches from the skull of one of the largest sauropods ever mounted.

Visitors are introduced themes that reappear in all galleries: earth forces, biological forces, and cultural forces that created the variety of living things and habitats in Oklahoma. Topical galleries examine Oklahoma’s ancient life, the people of Oklahoma, and regional flora and fauna. Other program spaces, including a discovery room, provide an experience that sparks curiosity and encourages exploration.

On October 6, 1871, a troupe of African American singers from Fisk University set out on a revolutionary tour to save their school from financial ruin.

Hilferty & Associates was honored to collaborate with staff and consulting scholars from Fisk University and the National Museum of African American Music (NMAAM) to bring the story of the Fisk Jubilee Singers alive for a diverse public audience. The 2,500 square-foot exhibition will engage audiences at NMAAM for a year before traveling to venues around the country.

The National Park Service completed a massive historic restoration of President Garfield’s home and estate in Mentor, Ohio. They commissioned Hilferty to prepare an interpretive plan for the site concentrating on the main and carriage houses. We then prepared exhibit plans and documents juxtaposing Garfield’s public accomplishments with his private life at his Mentor farm. Dynamic exhibits were respectfully integrated with the carefully restored architecture, providing interpretation while at the same time maintaining historical integrity. In a dramatic entry experience, visitors are treated to a full-scale light animated tableaux of Garfield’s presidential inauguration. This tableau quickly dissolves into his deathbed scene just beyond. A poignant portrayal of his brief term cut short by an assassin’s bullet.

The Al-Marah Arabian Horse Galleries at the Kentucky Horse Park are a new, two-story addition to the International Museum of the Horse, constitute the largest, most comprehensive exhibit on Arabian horses in North America. Eight stunning galleries celebrate the history of the Arabian breed. Each gallery has its own aesthetic that transports visitors from the breed’s desert origins and follows its spread throughout the Middle East, Europe, and America. Graphic panels, historic artifacts, immersive environments, breathtaking images and videos, hands-on activities, and computer interactives present the Arabian horse as never before.

Lake Murray State Park is rich in cultural and natural history. Built as part of the New Deal, it exhibits outstanding WPA era timber and stone architecture. The region, rich in natural resources, is located in the Cross Timbers and near the Arbuckle Mountains.

The goal of the new Nature Center, a flagship for the Oklahoma State Park system, is to better educate visitors as to the impact of their presence, the importance of conservation, and to inspire stewardship.

Durable, hands-on exhibits promote discovery and wonder in visitors of all ages. Visitors can follow animal tracks to hidden surprises, look through a periscope into the depths of Lake Murray, and watch pollution spread throughout an entire watershed point source. The importance of conservation—of water, energy, oil, and gas—is woven throughout the gallery. Features of the green building design are highlighted and explained for visitors.

North Carolina’s habitats range from conifer-topped mountains to coral-encrusted ocean floors. For over one hundred years the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences has introduced its visitors to the beauty, variety, and importance of the natural history of the state.

As the museum embarked on its second century, Hilferty helped to plan and design over 58,000 square feet of new exhibits and public spaces for a new facility.

Working closely with the museum staff we developed an advance plan, the first step in a three-year design process. To communicate the broad sweep of the state’s natural heritage, the plan outlined an exhibit storyline and suggested exhibit techniques that invite visitors to make their own scientific discoveries. Exhibits use live animals and the museum’s collection of specimens and artifacts to interpret natural science principles.

We designed exhibits that reinforce the idea that science is a way in which people can learn about the natural world—a world of which they are an integral part. Galleries include Marine Hall, Mountains to the Sea, Fossil Hall, Arthropod Zoo, Tropical Connections, a gallery exploring North Carolina’s link to the tropics featuring a three-story-high conservatory; Explorers Hall, a gallery about the history of the museum and its collections; and program spaces that include a discovery room, a naturalist center, and learning labs.

Hilferty developed an interpretive master plan for a unique and world-class 4,000-acre park system conceived by 21st Century Parks in greater Louisville, Kentucky.

Building upon the legacy of Louisville parks designed by legendary landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead, the Parklands of Floyds Fork parks system will be an invaluable part of the Louisville community for generations to come.

In addition, Hilferty designed maps and interpretive signage, for children and adults, to be used along trails throughout the parks, and exhibits for the visitor education and welcome center that provides a formal gateway into The Parklands, as well as an educational and discovery room space. 

The National Historic Trails Interpretive Center shares the stories of the Oregon, California, Mormon and Pony-Express Trails. The visitor center features dynamic, life-sized dioramas and exhibits of the men, women, and children who braved travel, work, and life on the frontier, along with the native peoples, wildlife, and landscape of the region.

An immersive multi-screen object theater incorporates many of these tableaus into an exhilarating introductory program, before inviting you to pass through these displays to explore themed histories and artifacts.

A variety of creative and immersive experiences allow you to feel what it was like to ford a river on a wagon train or travel by stagecoach. The National Historic Trails Center uses stories, artifacts, and multi-sensory experiences to immerse visitors this unforgettable part of Western history.  

The Chickasaw Cultural Center, located in Sulphur, Oklahoma, is a museum, library, archive, center for research and education, and a performance and meeting space. As a place for Chickasaw people to come together, and for others to learn about Chickasaw heritage and ways, it provides an enduring home for their objects, materials, and culture.

Hilferty, the exhibit designer of a multi-disciplined development team, created programs and exhibits that show how the essence of Chickasaw has survived in their people despite assimilation, government campaigns to submerge the culture, and a rapidly changing world. Themes include history, beliefs and values, traditions and customs, language, and tribal pride.

Exhibits are rich in media environments, interactive experiences, and demonstrations. Capitalizing on existing Chickasaw media prowess, we use technology to connect young people with the old stories that bind the Chickasaw people together. Visitors are completely immersed in the story, and feel Chickasaw power and pride.

The Bureau of Land Management’s largest historic complex, the National Historic Oregon Trail Center in Flagstaff Hill, Oregon, features a variety of exhibits on this 500-acre site. We helped to plan interpretation for a museum, a historic gold mining complex, a “living history” trail encampment, and visible traces of the original trail.

The interior exhibits plunge visitors into the organized chaos of the wagon train—a vivid, life-like diorama, where dust covered kids lead sweaty horses, flies worry the oxen, and a distraught mother prays at an infant’s grave. As they walk along the curvilinear path, visitors are transported back in time. Typical conversations, animal sounds, and the screech of wagon wheels add to the ambience.

From the diorama, visitors move to a series of exhibits filled with artifacts and experiences to evoke the spirit of the indomitable pioneers. Camp in Sight of the Blues wraps visitors in the sounds and sights of life at a camp near Flagstaff Hill, using programmed lighting and sound played out around a detailed diorama. Visitors can select from eight different vignettes. Two other audio-visual programs farther into the exhibit describe the hazards of a river crossing and the tough decisions at the end of the trail.

Hilferty is actively involved in supporting its local community. The Athens Photo Project, founded in 2001, uses photography as a creative tool to improve the health of teens and adults with mental illness in Athens, Hocking, and Vinton counties in Appalachian Ohio. APP photographs have been featured in exhibits throughout the region, raising awareness for mental health care and celebrating students' talents.

Working with project staff and students, Hilferty designed an exterior exhibit “A Thousand Words,” that displays photographic work in downtown Athens.

The Pennsylvania Lumber Museum collects, preserves, and interprets the history of Pennsylvania’s forests. The museum's goal transformed the visitor experience into redesigned permanent exhibits. Hilferty worked with the project team to connect the themes interpreted in the outdoor experience with those interpreted in the museum.  A variety of natural, wood, and wood-inspired materials were used throughout the design to add interpretive depth and visual interest. Additionally, Hilferty designed iconic approach and site signage for the facility that heightens the awareness of area tourists.

Winner of the 2016 AASLH Award of Merit

Cahokia Mounds Interpretive Center is a World Heritage Site located in Collinsville, Illinois. Cahokia is an important part of the design legacy of Hilferty and Associates and is well known by many with an interest and focus in Native American culture and archaeology. Hilferty’s innovative approach bridged an immersive experience, which begins in the orientation theater, directly into the exhibit floor, creatively using a variety of high and low technology and special effects available at the time. The experience is still impactful today, and a well-known project that stands the test of time.

The show begins in the orientation theater with The Archaeologist telling of the advanced Native American culture that flowered here for centuries before the arrival of the first Europeans. People we call Cahokians built a city of 20,000—larger even than London in its time. They farmed on a grand scale and built a trading empire, which extended their Mississippian Culture thousands of miles. Then, inexplicably, they vanished, leaving behind hundreds of enigmatic earthen mounds. The tale is then taken up by The Storyteller, who tells of sun calendars and wooden stockades, of ancestor worship and a belief system for day-to-day living.

As the orientation show concludes, The Storyteller beckons us to follow him into the past. The theater darkens, and the projection screen disappears. A baby cries, and a mother sings a soothing song. A campfire reveals first a single hut, and then thousands reveal a city. It is dawn in Cahokia. Leaving the theater, visitors step directly into another time. Strategically placed mirrors transform the village into a vast city.

Seven thematic exhibit islands surrounding the walk-through diorama interpret the site’s artifacts, clues to the mysteries of the past. Interactive exhibits help explain the life ways of these resourceful people. Visitors are invited to micro-drill beads, match raw materials to hand-made products, flip through recipes and explore drawers filled with artifacts.

Acclaimed by the Archaeological Institute of America, Cahokia attracts over 300,000 visitors a year.

The National Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo, Ohio builds on the rich tradition and history of the Great Lakes Historical Society and Inland Seas Museum. The museum encourages understanding and appreciation of the many ways the Great Lakes have shaped the past, influenced the present, and will affect the future by preserving, celebrating, and illustrating the region's abundant resources and its rich maritime heritage.

Hilferty’s creative design used many innovations in technology, including a Ship Wreck Simulator, and maximized many large and impressive maritime artifacts both inside and outside the museum. Bold graphics and a variety of materials, including ship sails, add depth and excitement to the exhibits.

Powerful natural forces—vast lava flows, Ice Age floods, and the Columbia River—have transformed the Columbia Basin over millions of years. Human forces, while more recent, have had equally powerful influences on the land. The goal of the The REACH Museum is to tell this colossal story in ways that intrigue and compel the visitor to learn more. The exhibits interpret the natural and cultural history of the area as well as efforts to save and remediate the Reach. Through a dynamic partnership of federal and local governments and community groups a gateway for the Hanford Reach National Monument and a gathering place for the Tri-Cities community was created.

Weedon Island Preserve is a wonderfully unique natural space on the shores of Tampa Bay. Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, the site contains the cultural remnants of the Weedon Island peoples including shell middens, burial mounds, and thousands of stone, bone, and ceramic artifacts. In addition to the historic significance, Weedon Island is a thriving nature preserve and a destination for kayakers, birdwatchers, ecologists, and outdoor enthusiasts.

Hilferty created exhibits at the Cultural and Natural History Center, which offer visitors fascinating perspectives on the cultural and natural landscape of Weedon Island. Vibrant spaces filled with interactive media and immersive exhibits enable the visitors to be transported a thousand years back in time while hands-on water exhibits dramatically demonstrate water conservation techniques.

The Environmental Studies Program of the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs at Ohio University reached out to Hilferty for their ideas on the design of a traveling exhibit that would educate the community about how to improve water quality from storm water run-off.

The team worked together to brainstorm an accessible and engaging design to explain this complex topic in a way that would inspire community members to take action in their own homes. The exhibit needed to communicate a large amount of information, spark curiosity, be interactive, and transportable.

Hilferty created a transportable table with a graphic panel that allows for interaction – the public can rotate the table to trigger the movement of rain, which flows through two yards, one that represents choices that negatively impact storm water flow, and the other that provides examples of positive action that can be taken to improve the flow of healthy water.

The interactive travelling exhibit is compact and can be transported easily. It is currently touring several libraries, community centers, and campuses. 

The Visitor’s Center at Lewis and Clark State Historic Site at Camp Dubois, the first site on the National Lewis and Clark Historic Trail, commemorates the launching point of the expedition at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. Visitors are immersed in visions of the expedition conjured by President Thomas Jefferson, along with real and imagined features of the West. A full-sized keelboat, split down the center with cargo exposed, invites visitors to explore the objects taken by the Corps of Discovery on their journey. Interactive elements explore daily life, journey preparation, and strategies of Captains Lewis and Clark.

Colonel Edwin Drake struck oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1858 starting a boom period which radically changed the face of Western Pennsylvania.

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission asked Hilferty to create a site-wide interpretive plan and exhibit design for the Drake Well Museum. 

Using the museum's extensive collections, the Hilferty team employed the latest technology and imaginative design to create an exciting, immersive, and interactive visitor experience exploring the history, science, and industry of oil production in mid-nineteenth century Pennsylvania.

Open year round, Oklahoma City’s Martin Park Nature Center provides outdoor adventure in the heart of Oklahoma City. Nestled on 144 acres in the city’s northwest side, the park is home to many species of animals, including birds, butterflies, squirrels, fox and reptiles.

Hilferty worked with Barrett L. Williamson Architects to create a master development plan for expanding the parks visitor center. 

Phase I details a major exhibit area which highlights a live animal collection in a seventy-foot graphic mural, along with specimens from a mounted collection. The mural depicts a cross section of the Cross Timbers landscape transition from forest to prairie.

Hilferty is designing a new heritage center, to be housed on the campus of Madonna University in Livonia, Michigan, that will share the story of the Felician Sisters of North America. Traveling from Poland to Wisconsin in 1874, the Sisters’ journey and growth have impacted the church, education, health care, and other social services in America as we know them today.

The new heritage center will feature an engaging 4-d film experience, following the Sisters’ epic journey across the Atlantic to the American frontier. Their spirituality and Franciscan heritage will be shared with visitors through the design aesthetic of the ancient city of Assisi. A variety of interactive AV will share the stories of today’s Sisters and their ongoing service in their communities.

The Sioux City Public Museum is located in the heart of downtown Sioux City in a re-purposed J.C. Penney building, from museum concept to exhibit installation, Hilferty led museum staff in bringing this museum to life.

Visitors discover the “Spirit of Sioux City” through a lively 12-minute orientation film in the ornate Corn Palace Theater. A variety of hands-on experiences are available including the award-winning Innovation I-Wall and The Big Dig, which replicates an active fossil dig site.

Sioux City celebrates its rich cultural heritage, from the areas first Native Americans to the Stockyards, and innovative businesses like Gateway Computers. Interactive, immersive exhibits, like the Disaster and Recovery Facade, the Siouxland Attic, and an agricultural-themed children's play area encourage visitors to explore and learn about Sioux City's past, present, and future.

Hilferty, in conjunction with Line and Space Architects, LLC, found fresh and exciting ways to interpret the striking landscapes and biological diversity of the Mojave Desert’s Red Rock Canyon.

Innovative indoor/outdoor experiences in tempered microclimates introduce visitors to this land of extremes, where elemental forces of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water challenge residents to adapt in order to survive and is demonstrated through hands-on activities. Bronze sculptures offer an intimate view of some of the canyon’s rarely seen residents. While visitors explore the center, they glimpse breathtaking views of Red Rock’s Calico Hills and surrounding Spring Mountains. 

At the cultural heart of the National Mall, the National Museum of the American Indian celebrates the history and culture of indigenous peoples of the Americas. Hilferty crafted the Interpretive Master Plan centered on Native Americans telling their own stories, and also designed theater and exhibit spaces.

Visitors to the innovative Lelawi Theater are immersed within a circular space suggestive of Southwest kivas and earth lodges. The multimedia experience transports visitors to the Arctic Circle, the Great Plains, and the Amazonian rainforest as images of diverse cultures are projected on a 40-foot-domed ceiling and within the theater’s sculptural centerpiece.

Other exhibits display stunning artifacts, keyed to touchscreen monitors, that show and tell stories about the makers of these wondrous objects.

An inland sea called the Tallgrass prairie covered the Midwest two centuries ago. Now, only tiny patches remain to remind us of our prairie heritage. As part of its goal to preserve biodiversity, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has reconstructed prairie on 8,600 acres of farmland at the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge in Prairie City, Iowa. To interpret the how and why of this gradual process, we worked with them to develop programs and exhibit designs for a 27,000 square foot visitor center. Audiovisual presentations, hands-on exhibits, and dramatic dioramas help visitors envision the vastness of the prairie and its subtle beauty until the decades-long task of reconstruction is complete. Visitors follow an exciting multi-level path of discovery from a wide format theater, to an underground walk among giant worms and badgers, to historic settings, and finally to a working prairie science laboratory.

The Kentucky Horse Park was one of our first major projects as a firm and is an important part of our design legacy.

The complex site encompasses a 1,000+ acre working horse farm, demonstration areas, tours, event attractions, and interpretive exhibits. Hilferty led the interpretive team that planned this integrated experience capable of educating and entertaining approximately 800,000 annual visitors.

Hilferty began by analyzing and expanding an existing facility plan from a visitor’s point-of-view. The resulting process re-examined the Horse Park’s mission and goals as a foundation on which to build an appealing, functional, visitor-based experience.

The plan was followed by design and implementation, creating and attraction that continues to be viable 25 years later. Visitors still come by the hundreds of thousands to see farriers and harness makers at work, horse training and competing, a farm in action, and exhibitions about the history and legacy of the horse.

Spanish explorers and Seminole Indians. Cracker cowmen and citrus growers. Auto tourists and aerospace engineers. Cuban refugees and theme park developers. For 12,000 years, all sorts of people have been discovering and making history in the subtropical paradise of central Florida. 11,000 square feet of interactive, dramatic exhibits tell this vibrant story from the sublime to tourist kitsch.

Visitors begin their journey on the 4th floor, relaxing in a screened porch, surrounded by the evocative imagery of a multimedia production. Emerging into a lush natural environment of palm and palmetto, they move through time and place in theatrical settings on three floors of galleries: Discovering a Paradise, Building a Kingdom, and Celebrating the Community. At each setting, visitors discover how a region of swamp and scrub land was transformed into an internationally-known center of agriculture, space exploration, and tourism. They meet the communities that comprise this diverse, booming region and learn how they themselves participate in history-making today.

The Kentucky Derby Museum was one of our first major projects as a firm, and an important part of our design legacy. A monument to the splendor and pageantry of the Kentucky Derby, the museum inhabits a 37,000 square foot building, with 15,000 square feet devoted to exhibits.

Exhibits are situated on two levels, visually connected by a large center atrium, “the Great Hall.” The first floor is devoted to the Derby story. The second floor reveals the world of thoroughbred racing.

Twice every hour, the Great Hall is transformed into a theater for a 360-degree presentation, one of the first of its kind, created on the oval fascia between the first and second floors. A scaled-down replica of the Winner’s Circle and Presentation Stand at Churchill Downs presents a sculpture of the current champion, with the tote board behind lighting the winning payoffs. This groundbreaking presentation was updated from its original multi-projector format to more modern digital technology.

Visitors may stand on authentic weigh-in scales and find out just how many pounds they’ll have to sweat off to “make weight” for the race. A highlight of the museum experience is “Place Your Bets,” an interactive video simulation which allows visitors to “handicap” the horses, make selections, wager on the race, and then see it run.

Doctors treat patients. Epidemiologists treat populations. The Visitor & Education Center at the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention serves as the gateway to the CDC’s main Atlanta campus. On three levels, 18,000 square feet of interpretive spaces immerse visitors in the dynamic world of public health practiced on a global scale.

Visitors are greeted by a spectacular rear-projection screen wall that arcs through the Center’s main atrium, offering a vivid cross-section of the world that moves from the microbial to the continental. Downstairs, Bio-Containment Theater takes visitors inside a faux high security lab to experience laboratorians handling the world’s most dangerous agents.

One of the country’s oldest and largest state museums, the New York State Museum aspires to be the world’s window onto New York. Hilferty’s plan renovated more than 156,000 square feet of permanent exhibits. Portraying the State’s striking diversity of ecosystems and human inhabitants is the credo of the new exhibitions.

On the Mezzanine, New York Times offers a chronological walk through millions of years of natural and human history. Native American Stories and Empire State share spaces that tell stories about peopling the land along avenues of trade, settlement, and warfare. Majority Rules, Minority Rights challenges visitors with issues of gender, race, ethnicity, and political power. Growing Up In New York views the State’s past through the lens of children.

Hilferty captured the timeless and exciting story of the world of fishing, inspiring the museum's striking architecture, which includes a signature special effects theater. Virtual reality simulators, real-time digital records, and discovery areas emphasizing worldwide conservation are featured in 25,000 square feet of exhibits. Exploring the marina and exterior nature center complete this memorable visitor experience.

Primarily known for his advancement of the Geodesic Dome, Buckminster Fuller developed the radical Dymaxion House in 1946. Designed to be mass-produced, lightweight, and low cost, it was intended for production in manufacturing facilities to be shipped worldwide.

To highlight the Dymaxion house Hilferty created a post-WWII aircraft manufacturing plant. Graphic posters, collaged bulletin boards, and newsreel footage set the tone of the 1940s providing a context for experiencing the house. Mechanical interactive units invite visitors to record impressions about the practicality of living in a round house. Computer interactives allow visitors to access more information about Buckminster Fuller and the Museum’s conservation of this unique artifact while making connections with other design collections in the Museum.

Working with the U.S. Forest Service, Hilferty created a special learning experience for visitors at the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. The blast tore 1,350 feet from the mountain’s peak, shot hot ash 11 miles into the air, buried Spirit Lake, felled 230 square miles of timber and killed 60 people. But we found a story even bigger than that.

Special exhibits explores the evolving, cyclical life of the Pacific Northwest—from a flourishing ecosystem used and enjoyed by people, to a blasted, barren wasteland, to regeneration and repopulation of life.

The experience begins with a multi-media retelling of the mountain’s story. Interactive models help visitors understand plate tectonics and volcanism. A seismograph senses the pulse of the mountain, while a laser device measures the growth of the dome as the mountain rebuilds itself. Visitors can walk down inside a scale model of Mount St. Helens to learn how and why the mountain exploded.

In honor of Roosevelt’s legacy, Dickinson University began an ambitious project to digitize Roosevelt’s prodigious collection of written material. The result is the country’s largest presidential digital archive.

Hilferty is creating a master plan bringing together Roosevelt’s incredible life story and this archival treasure. Envisioned is a 40,000 square foot Library and Museum with state of the art exhibits and electronic access. Visitors will come to know Roosevelt thru displays which skillfully blend period aesthetics with high technology. The focal point will be a twenty first century cyclorama which carries the audience thru a series of multi- media dioramas depicting pivotal events in North Dakota’s Roosevelt Country.

The Southeastern Kentucky coal fields are undergoing substantial change from a traditional extractive economy to one concentrated on recreation and tourism. Hilferty is providing insightful planning and design services to three communities in Harlan County. The plan under implementation calls for uniting three historic coal towns to tell a complex story of pre-coal company towns and the evolution of mining techniques.

Visitors will ride from a recreated pioneer village to a company store museum to a vast coal mining and preparation complex. Visitors don hard hats and climb aboard a “man-trip” to zoom off on an unforgettable underground adventure. Through the magic of “object theaters,” they visit various mine scenes including one powered by mules. Their experience culminates in a cavernous rough hewn room viewing the surround presentation “Black Mountain.”

For over 12,000 years, humans have inhabited the Central Illinois River Valley. Since 1972, the Dickson Mounds Museum has collected and interpreted archaeological evidence of life in this region. Hilferty was asked to provide facility programming, exhibit design, and site signage services for the completely renovated facility.

We developed 24,000 square feet of new and refurbished exhibits and program areas for the museum reopening. Our award-winning exhibits featured an interpretive approach that sheds new light on those who lived in the valley unifying natural, cultural, and spiritual elements.

The lobby is a dynamic environment of Mississippian colors and iconography. Exhibits, a dynamic orientation theater, and a special rooftop observatory on the museum’s third-floor encourage visitors to view the Central Illinois River Valley through the eyes of the people who inhabited the valley since 10,000 B.C. This experience is the prelude to the Chronology Gallery, where exhibit islands present changes in Central Illinois life ways: Hunting and Gathering, Gardening, Farming, and Conflict and Change.

One of our challenges was to create an exhibit in a space that contains a covered archaeological excavation of a Mississippian mound. Our solution was a dramatic multi-media experience woven of life-cast figures, graphic imagery, myths, and music that seemingly floats over the cedar burial cover—a compelling and appropriately reverent presentation that gives visitors a sense of the Upper World, Lower World, and This World of Mississippian cosmology.

Interactives invite visitors to learn by manipulating the world around them. They also encourage social interaction as friends and family members share their discoveries or engage in friendly competition.

Interactives can be used on a wide variety of projects, with spaces and budgets both large and small. Not all interactives are digital! We use many traditional “analog” techniques such as flip-books, reveals, peepholes, bas relief and textures. We often integrate motion and touch sensors, lighting, and sound to enhance these traditional graphic and tactile elements. Our expertise in materials and finishes ensures the appearance, usability, and durability of your interactive exhibits.

Our firm pioneered the innovative use of technology in visitor experience – designing immersive 4d theatrical experiences, along with interactive multimedia elements, from kiosks to simulators, multi-Taction monitors and tablets. 

For many projects, Hilferty creates content with children in mind. Exhibits and information are designed to be physically and cognitively accessible for many ages and learning levels, and incorporate hands-on and sensory elements to spark curiosity, inspire learning, and keep kids engaged.

We have incorporated child and family-focused elements into overall exhibit schemes, and we have also designed exhibit spaces specifically devoted to children. We use all the resources in our design toolkit to make these appealing, innovative, and fun.

Our design includes considerations for the operations and maintenance of these experiences.  Our approach is creative but practical in creating spaces and activities that stand-up to active and ongoing use by this energetic audience. We design both digital and analog experiences using hardy materials, engineering, and technology as appropriate for your needs and desired visitor experience. 

In all our projects, our team understands that we are building the next generation of museums lovers one visit at a time.