In Ballard, Seattle’s traditionally Scandinavian enclave that has come alive with buzzy restaurants in the past decade, the Nordic Museum will open its $45 million new home on May 5. The 57,000-square-foot building is a huge leap from the museum’s previous site, which was inside a decommissioned red-brick schoolhouse.
Collaborating with Finland’s Juhani Pallasmaa, the architectural firm Mithun designed this elegantly simple structure wrapped in vertical zinc striae. Upon entering, visitors will face a dramatically soaring space that harks back to intricate fjords. Battered white walls create a zigzagging atrium that cuts through the museum’s length.
“Our intent is to inspire a certain mythic quality—something that evokes grand landscapes,” says Richard Franko, Mithun’s partner who oversaw the project. “We wanted to evoke the visceral feelings of the crystalline, faceted geography.”
“We were going for geological without being literal,” adds Dustann Jones, a senior associate who worked on the project. “Between us, we use the term ‘geovocative.’”
The corridor leads to the Douglas fir grand stair with two pauses with peekaboos and mini galleries. Upstairs, the core exhibition displays, designed by Ralph Applebaum Associates, trace 12,000 years of Nordic and Nordic American history through the Museum’s 77,000-item collection in addition to artifacts on loan from other institutions. You might find early-20th-century textiles or modern and contemporary Nordic furniture.
Visitors are welcomed to the museum with opportunities to get information, sit and plan their visit, and explore a map of the Nordic region for orientation. The Fjord Hall leads them into the beginning of the exhibition experience.
“It’s a little humbling for an architect to design a Nordic cultural museum because it’s one of the leading cultures that celebrate design,” says Franko. “It’s an incredible architectural and design legacy to respond to.”
Bridges connect the atrium from above, inviting visitors to cross back and forth between the Nordic and Nordic American exhibits. This physical experience also embodies the theme of migration and cultural exchange.
From the Western hemlock that dominates the cavernous auditorium down to the Swedish locks on doors, the new Nordic Museum is at once globally minded and locally rooted.
“The goal from the beginning was to integrate the architecture with the storytelling as much as possible,” says Eric Nelson, the museum’s CEO. “We also tried to incorporate textures and materials that are found in both the Nordic countries and the Pacific Northwest.”
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