Museum of geology for Breezewood, PA: "Studying the role of architecture in the science of geology"

Abstract

People cannot be trained to marvel at landscapes, nor to love their places and their planet. On the other hand, love of place and of the Earth are scarcely sentimental extras to be indulged only when all technical and material problems have been resolved...

The experiences of places, spaces and landscapes in which academic geography originates are a fundamental part of everyone's experience, and geography has no exclusive claim to them. Indeed, one of the first aims of a phenomenology of geography should be to retrieve these experiences from the academic netherworld and to return them to everyone by reawakening a sense of wonder about the Earth and its places. (1.)

Designing a place which reawakens a sense of wonder of the Earth becomes the mission statement for this design thesis: a place which emphasizes the very real and immediate experiences which we share with the land (and landforms) that cannot only support our daily existence, but can soar above us to heights which inspire myth and imagination; a place which uniquely reveals itself to each person promoting personal observations and personal interpretations.