JOHN BOYD THACHER STATE PARK VISITOR CENTER
April 2017, New York State Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation, Voorheesville, NY
When is a landscape done changing?
John Boyd Thacher purchased 300 acres of land to preserve it as it was. Now a state park since 1914, its new visitor center exhibits bring outdoor adventurers of all ages into a new story. Through a mix of traditional, interactive and fully immersive exhibits, visitors explore the park’s natural wonders, the forces that have shaped them over time and the conservation efforts that have maintained and made them accessible. Visitors get oriented to the park and head out on trails with an informed perspective of a place that is still taking shape.
How to make a bat cave
Bats are an important success story in Thacher’s conservation efforts. To help young people and grownups learn about and feel comfortable with them Moey designed and built a highly accurate, enterable cave with illuminated visuals and sounds of bats. We started by planning all of its facets to pack the whole thing into a tight building corner.
How to fossilize a table
One of Thacher’s highlights is its abundant fossils, which show incredible history along a number of hikes. To emphasize this Moey designed and built a fossilized coffee table for the greeting area. First we made a clay model of a fossil-rich slab. Then we fabricated a silicone mold and cast the slab as a fascinating, educational surface.
Moey staff paid close attention to our ideas and concerns for not only content but also for the long- term care and maintenance of the exhibits. From these concepts, they designed products that far exceeded our expectations. The materials used in the finished exhibits were very high quality and very creative in character and function. As the Park Manager, I found the experience of working with Moey very easy and satisfying.
John Boyd Thacher State Park
Maureen Curry, Park Manager
WHAT WE’VE DONE
Concepting
Exhibit design
UX / UI
Programming
Media production
Project management
Construction
Installation
A/V integration
Electromechanical design
Graphic design
Share Project
