The National Wildlife Refuge System conserves, manages, and restores fish, wildlife, and plant resources and their habitats within the United States for the benefit of the American people. Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1964 to provide a place for visitors to view and appreciate wildlife. Taylor Studios designed, built, and installed a new permanent exhibit gallery at the Helen C. Fenske Visitor Center, located in a refurbished farmhouse.
In order to make visitors feel welcome at the refuge, earthy paint colors and stained cedar accents were used to give the exhibits a homey, comfortable feel. An interactive, realistic dead tree model is featured in the main exhibit room. Visitors approach the tree, only to realize it’s teeming with life—animal models and imagery under bark flip doors show visitors that what may appear dead and useless to humans is actually very useful to wildlife. Baby raccoons, termites, and an Indiana bat are merely a few of the animals visitors can discover in the tree model. Other elements include a large table map with interactive touchscreens and a diorama that takes visitors through the four seasons in a cattail marsh.
One challenge in this project was collecting site-specific photos for the exhibit. Taylor Studios searched through the client’s online albums to choose the best photos for the exhibit and incorporated many photos taken by the client and other local photographers specifically for this project.
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