National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium

The discovery center presents colorful, interactive exhibits that allow visitors to explore and interpret the history of diverse people, cultures, and unique ecosystem of the Mississippi River. The program includes the discovery center, riverboat museum, café, boatyard, floating steamboat, and interpretive wetlands. The client asked for a building that represents the look and feel of Dubuque and reminds visitors of the city’s industrial era. Local materials and manufactured products, such as limestone from local quarries and wood windows, reflects the town’s historic building traditions, and the metal cladding suggests the industrial nature of the buildings previously located on-site.