Waukegan History Museum

Waukegan, Illinois

The Waukegan History Museum in Bowen Park is the headquarters of the Waukegan Historical Society. The Museum is the former home of John C Haines, a past mayor of Chicago. The Haines House was built around 1843, making it one of the oldest surviving buildings in Lake County. As the Society's mission has expanded and the Museum's visitorship has increased, so has the need for additional space. Our design for a new visitor center adds ample areas for exhibits, the Society's research library, classrooms, and offices. It is joined to the historic home by a 2-story passageway of transparent glass that connects the old and the new physically while leaving them separated visually. The addition is a contemporary reference to a corn crib and storage structure that once existed behind the house. Exploiting the site's sloping terrain, the addition's lowest floor is below grade, diminishing its size in relation to the historic house but also allowing it to open up---with broad windows, a roof terrace, and a public circulation link---to the rest of the park beyond.