At Thinc, Chris was a member of the team that executed designs for the California Academy of Sciences’ Steinhart Aquarium and walk-thru Rainforest environments, as well as Johnson & Johnson’s Beijing Olympic Pavilion and the 9/11 Memorial Preview Site near Ground Zero in New York City.
Between September 2007 and October 2009, I worked as an exhibit designer at Thinc Design in New York. My projects included work with the teams that produced the Johnson & Johnson Olympic Pavillion at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 50,000 square foot Steinhart Aquarium at the new California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, and the 9/11 Memorial Preview Site in Lower Manhattan. I also participated in early-phase work for a variety of corporate and institutional clients.
The Steinhart Aquarium has been awarded a 2009 IDEA Award for Environments from the IDSA as well as a 2009 Event Design Award for Best Museum Environment.
Coordination of Exhibit, Graphics, Lighting and AV for a 3000 square foot Exhibit and Retail Space educating the public about the progress of the Memorial and Museum being built at Ground Zero in New York.
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Dive Stations are designed to allow aquarium visitors to learn more about specimens from three ecosystems represented at the institution- Philippine Coral Reef, Amazon Rain Forest, and California Coast. There is also a Dive Station as part of the Water Planet gallery. Visitors can handle actual specimens, from tree frogs to great white shark’s tooth to sea slugs. By placing the specimens on different ‘hotspots’, visitors can learn about the specimen from a variety of perspectives, from Biology to it’s connection to humans to the Academy’s role in research or conservation.
The exhibit was designed with the goal of providing an accessible experience for a variety of age groups, with content that the Academy could easily update and evolve to suit its needs.
In the Water Planet, visitors learn about how life has adapted to thrive in water in each of it’s various conditions – warm and cold, saline and fresh, dry and wet. The Water Imagers were designed to supplement the nearby living displays by providing additional stories within each theme. For example, next to the Beaded Lizard enclosure, visitors learn about how other lifeforms that have adapted to dry conditions. These interactives’ close proximity to living exhibits, water effects (and visitors!) made for an interesting technical and design challenge.
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With a dozens of contractors tasked with executing the 50,000 sq ft of live displays, animal enclosures, exhibits, graphics, lighting, software, and AV that collectively create the Steinhart Aquarium experience, the Thinc Design team had our work cut out for us.
In order for all of this work to come together smoothly, Chris was tasked with coordinating work between Thinc’s design leads, various contractors, the Academy content teams and the architect.
