Rethinking the 21st-Century Museum: Equitable Design

A diverse group of museum professionals and designers’ reimagine museum design focused on the potential and measurable impacts of cultural and civic spaces.

Completed: 2021
Partners: Synder Consultancy, AEA Consulting, Perkins&Will
"At no point was the goal to build an outdoor museum. Some people even said, ‘Don’t call it a museum,’ because it automatically screams, ‘less access… it’s not for us."
Joanne KimSenior Advisor to Los Angeles City Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson, recalling the search for a name that would fully reflect the equity of the place Destination Crenshaw wants to be
Rethinking the 21st-Century Museum: Equitable Design took place over three sessions in June and July 2021. Recognizing the need to expand the audience of museums as well as fundamental shifts in technology, visitor behavior, and community interests, a diverse group of museum professionals and designers came together to reimagine the future of the museum’s built environment. This group’s reimagining of museum design focused on the potential and measurable impacts of cultural and civic spaces. Three themes emerged from collective insights.

Room for Everyone

This theme ties together issues relating to the emotional dynamics of space: awareness of spatial histories and embodied trauma; using space as an act of reparations; spaces designed for social cohesion; awareness of emotional needs of visitors; awareness of threshold barriers; metaphors embedded in design; storytelling; the restorative value of nature.

Civic Continuum

This theme ties together issues relating to the social dynamics of space: challenging the typology of museums as hierarchical and authoritative; shifting from product to platform in order to dismantle hierarchies of consumptive culture; democratization of the ground floor; spatial solutions to community engagement; human centered design; libraries as non-judgmental spaces; culture as a vehicle for personal narrative and collective storytelling.

The Imperfect Present

This theme introduces the political dynamics of space: consideration of culturally determined systems of production; reinvestment in communities; equity ownership; space as a resource for power redistribution; reimagining the value of time (past, present, future); space as a container for future needs; consumptive culture.

This series was co-produced by Snyder Consultancy, AEA Consulting, and Perkins&Will, with sponsorship to AREA Research from Agnes Gund. Project leadership included Jill Snyder, principal, Snyder Consultancy; Daniel Payne, managing principal, AEA Consulting; Casey Jones, principal, Zena Howard, principal and global cultural and civic practice chair, Kate Nation and Lauren Neefe, Editorial Directors, Perkins&Will.
Learn More
<< Previous Project
Next Project >>

Get in touch ― [email protected]

Copyright 2025 © All rights reserved.