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Statue of Liberty Museum 2018-2019

Statue of Liberty Museum 2018-2019

Designers: Edwin Schlossberg, Alexandra Alfaro, Presston Brown, Emily Webster Bağdatli, Laura Gunther, Matt Weisgerber, and Joe Kara, ESI Design, New York, New York, USA
Manufacturer: Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, New York, New York, USA


For over 125 years, the Statue of Liberty has inspired people all over the world as a symbol and reminder of liberty. At the new Statue of Liberty Museum, visitors will have the opportunity to experience the history and grandeur of this colossal figure and consider the role of liberty in their world today. The new museum is part of a $100 million Liberty Island-wide beautification effort that’s being funded by The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation. The 26,000 sq ft museum was designed by architecture firm FXCollaborative with exhibits created by experience design firm ESI Design. The structure was built by Phelps Construction Group. SBI Consultants served as the owner’s representative coordinating activities among all stakeholders.

The Statue of Liberty Museum was designed to overcome some key challenges. Only 20% of the 4.3 million annual visitors to Liberty Island due to security restrictions post-9/11. Also, many (up to 50%) do not speak English or speak it as a second language. The new Museum creates access for all visitors to Liberty Island—regardless of age, language, culture or accessibility. To address huge crowds (up to 25,000 visitors a day), the museum’s multi-layered exhibits and entrances are designed non-linearly to reduce bottlenecks. Offering a thorough and engaging sense of Lady Liberty’s story, even during a quick visit. Since the Museum can be enjoyed in any weather, the wealth of artifacts also provides off-season visitors with plenty of material to linger over. To recreate the experience of the Statue’s interior, the museum’s immersive film features a stunning flythrough sequence that goes from Pedestal to Crown to create the sense of being inside the Statue. Finally, the Museum’s blend of exhibits, artifacts and interactive experiences delivers a rich visual narrative that provides key points without the need to read large amounts of text

The museum journey begins in the Immersive Theater with a sweeping film that takes visitors on a cinematic flythrough inside the monument. It shares the story of the Statue, from its origins to present day through three connected theater spaces. The curving walls of the Immersive Theater mirror the Statue’s flowing robe.

In the Engagement Gallery, visitors delve deeper into the Statue’s construction and history, and explore the multifaceted and contested ideal of liberty through over 150 artifacts, historical videos and interactive experiences. To create an immersive experience, the physical look and feel of the gallery evokes movement though time and place. The Immersive Theater’s walls are plaster like Bartholdi’s first plaster model; exiting the theater into the Engagement Gallery, wooden slats harken to the wooden molds that were used in the process of Statue enlargement; and the main exhibit walls throughout the Engagement Gallery are in a range of copper tones from reddish to patina green to echo the Statue’s exterior transformation. In this gallery, theatrical soundscapes add to the immersive nature of the museum, using two unique sources: the clang of copper being hammered to recreate the construction process, recorded at the same workshop used during the 1986 Restoration; and oral histories from immigrants arriving into New York Harbor, reflecting on seeing the Statue of Liberty for the first time.

The museum’s emotional culmination is the Inspiration Gallery, where visitors are invited to join Liberty’s story and debate the meaning of liberty by sharing their own perspectives. Becoming Liberty is an interactive experience that prompts visitors take a self-portrait and answer the question “What does Liberty mean to you?”, by selecting up to seven evocative, curated images (the number references the seven points on the Statue’s crown). Called “playfully alluring” by the Wall Street Journal, the Becoming Liberty canvas features visitor’s self-portraits and image choices in a software-generated ever-changing digital mural, which visualizes the popularity of certain images and the global nature of the museum’s audience on a large LED wall. And in a striking glass gallery visitors can see the Statue's original torch up close, with Lady Liberty herself in the distance, set against a stunning backdrop of the NYC skyline.

The museum is one of the first to incorporate the 2018 updated and standardized digital accessibility requirements of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. This update requires all federal institutions and museums make information technology and interactive experiences accessible to all, including hearing and visual impaired visitors. Since the mandate was issued midway through the design of the museum, ESI Design had to rethink wireframes, content descriptions, and even the design of physical exhibits. In the end, ESI Design went above and beyond to create one of the most accessible museum exhibits in the world. Highlights of the state-of-the art ADA compliance include:

  • • Assistive navigational keypads at all interactive kiosks for those with impaired vision, restricted mobility, or limited motor skills
    • Interactive exhibits includes audio describing the sketches and posters for vision impaired visitors
    • An American Sign Language version of the digital tour guide on an iPad for hearing impaired
    • ADA-compliant graphic standards in all static imagery, typography as well as video content
    • Exhibit cases and kiosks built to allow for access by those using wheelchairs

The Statue of Liberty Museum has been covered internationally on television, in print and online in outlets the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, BBC News and Architectural Digest. Fast Company writes: “Every American should visit the new Statue of Liberty Museum.” 


Statue of Liberty Museum
Statue of Liberty Museum

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