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A two-story, approximately 25,000-square-foot exhibit hall is in the works for the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria. It will be adjacent to the main museum building, at 1792 Marine Drive.

Opsis Architecture designed the $30 million mass-timber addition, which is the centerpiece of the museum鈥檚 Mariners Hall project. The addition will be named the Warnock Building, in honor of one of the lead donors. The project is part of a campus transformation, which includes a renovation of the museum鈥檚 main building; that work is now mostly completed.

The project team includes civil engineer KPFF, structural engineer and design-build installer StructureCraft of Seattle, landscape architect Walker Macy, design consultant sparks+sullivan, exhibit designer Storyline Studio of Bothell, Washington, and construction manager/general contractor Rickenbach Construction of Astoria.

The museum has two large warehouses off campus on the south side of Marine Drive. They hold boats and artifacts, which will be moved to the Warnock Building.

The museum鈥檚 other existing campus building, the Barbey Maritime Center, includes a boat-building workshop space and a conference space. The center and the main museum building are connected only by a parking lot. A trolley line rolls through the middle of campus. A new covered walkway will cross the trolley access and Astoria Riverwalk and connect the Warnock Building with the museum鈥檚 main building, said Alec Holser, one of Opsis Architecture鈥檚 founding principals.

Opsis Architecture worked with Walker Macy and sparks+sullivan to develop a master plan for the site. The design uses the Astoria Riverwalk as a spine to connect to various campus elements, Holser said.

鈥淭here鈥檚 going to be a quite a bit more landscaping: landscaped parking lots and tree sizes and a whole graphic program of fairly large signage elements along the riverwalk that will lead visitors from the parking lots to the riverwalk and then to the existing main museum entry,鈥� Holser said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e really trying to tie through landscape, graphic signage and everything else to really make it into a campus.鈥�

Completed phases of the campus transformation include reconstruction of north side and south side galleries, the Chinook Exhibit, and the Cedar & Sea Gallery. A new gallery, the Gallery of Opportunity, will be on the south edge of the Warnock Building, Holser said. The Cedar & Sea Gallery opened last month and focuses on the maritime culture of Indigenous groups.

The Warnock Building will include a mass-timber frame and a curvy, mass-timber roof. Curvy glulam ribs will be topped by purlin-plywood panels to create an all-wood roof supported by strategically placed timber and steel columns, StructureCraft states on its website. The idea is for it to be a big, open space, Holser said. The building will have extensive windows, including a two-story window wall facing the river. On the other side, people will be able to see into the building.

鈥淵ou鈥檒l be able to see these boats on display while driving on the highway,鈥� Holser said.

The Warnock Building will house approximately 24 vessels, a hanging U.S. Coast Guard helicopter, the Bulkhead exhibit, a theater, and a gift shop. A 40-foot-high atrium will offer views of the vessels against the backdrop of expansive, 20-foot-high windows overlooking the Columbia River. A curvy ramp along the Bulkhead exhibit will allow visitors to view the boats from various angles.

The building鈥檚 west side will have a Boathouse exhibit featuring eight to 12 boats on display at one time. Then different ones will be cycled through.

Facing the highway side will be interactive STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) space for visitors of all ages. The building will also include a classroom space for support of STEAM learning.

Recently, construction crews began tackling parking lot improvements. Pile driving is scheduled to start soon. StructureCraft will supply the Warnock Building鈥檚 wood structural frame, which will go up in spring/summer 2025.

Once construction is complete, the museum will then begin exhibit installation. The Warnock Building is expected to open in late summer 2026.

On the Boards is a 91视频 feature offering a look at projects in Oregon and Southwest Washington being tackled by local architecture firms. To have your firm鈥檚 projects considered, contact 91视频 reporter Hilary Dorsey at [email protected].