HOK Architects is developing a new Pacific Region Center for NOAA that will consolidate over 600 people from diverse locations across the region into a single research and administrative headquarters in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The project, located on Ford Island, involves the adaptive reuse of two World War II era hangers (approximately 250,000 square feet of space), and over 100,000 square feet of new construction, along with extensive site development. Downstream has been asked to develop a world-class visitor experience, which will communicate NOAA’s mission to its key constituents and stakeholders, and incorporates the uniqueness of the Pacific Islands’ contributions to science.

The Downstream design team first visited Hawaii during the week of November 15, 2008. We met with NOAA user groups, visited NOAA scientists on the islands of Oahu and Hawaii, and toured several scientific and cultural exhibit spaces and interpretive centers. Through this on-site discovery process, we determined what stories were most important to each of NOAA’s six line offices, and began the process of integrating the Pacific Region’s cultural story with the story of NOAA’s mission in the region.

Downstream took into account the entire site of the Pacific Region Center (PRC) as a singular experience, locating historical and cultural displays in the landscape surrounding the PRC, while focusing NOAA-specific stories in the three-story atrium space at the heart of the PRC. The displays range from: freestanding interpretive displays, to a site-integrated timeline, and even a 40-foot tall interactive display. Each exhibit area employs a unified storytelling methodology as well as an aesthetic consistency, unifying the experience of the entire exhibit. All displays were designed to integrate flawlessly into the surrounding architecture, and draw their form-factor from the undulating surface of the Pacific Ocean itself.