The State Historical Society of Missouri (SHSMO) | Kansas City, Missouri | 2021

Architects: Multistudio
Lead Architect: Sean Zaudke
General Contractor: River City Construction LLC.
Client: The State Historical Society of Missouri
Photographers: Michael Robinson and Steve Hall

At the confluence of major rivers, in the center of a state whose corners make up diverse geographies, Columbia, Missouri, is home to the State Historical Society of Missouri. Our team approached this project with three primary stakeholders: the historical society, the University of Missouri, and the state. The architects were challenged with marrying the missions of the three distinctive institutions into one cohesive library that celebrates and offers a venue to provide a new lens for scholars, students, and visitors to understand our world today.

The design team's strategy integrates the notion of confluence into the building's parti, where several layers of overlap occur between the campus and the citythe past and the presentart on display and the structure's vast archives, and the ongoing dialogue that happens within the state. The building's form mimics the limestone masses cantilevering the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, and the exterior is clad in a locally sourced stone called Ste. Genevieve Marble. They approached SHSMO as an opportunity to rethink how a library engages the world.

SHSMO includes an auditorium, event space, a reading room, archives, flexible exhibition galleries, classrooms, a café©, a gift shop, and a bookstore. Originating as a place to preserve the state's newspapers, today, the library includes one of the largest collections of state and local newspapers, manuscripts, photographs, rare books, oral histories, and maps. The art gallery contains a permanent collection of work by famed Missouri painter, muralist, and printmaker, Thomas Hart Benton.

Benton, a leader of the Regionalist art movement, was known for capturing the spirit of everyday life. His work informed our design of the monumental stair, a destination stair that cantilevers over the lobby, producing a podium for lectures and speeches. The curves of the enclosed balustrade imitate the fluid brushstrokes of Benton's work and reinforce the geometric forms common in the American realist modern art movement. Having achieved LEED Gold and just a few points short of Platinum, our team designed the structure to be future-proof.

Additionally, they tapped our landscape architecture team to create a landscaped edge that captures rainwater runoff and absorbs moisture around the foundation, reducing drainage problems and keeping the building dry. Exceedingly, this project and the client's mission mimicked our rallying callto pursue possibilities collectively. A constructive relationship with the client, a network of engaged stakeholders, and a relentless curiosity from four of our studios worked in unison to generate a landmark for the city of Columbia and the state of Missouri.