In summer 2024, we partnered with Snyder Consultancy to strengthen and refine the sector’s strategic approach to museum design. Guided by cultural strategist Jill Snyder, we assembled an integrated team of leaders, designers, and marketing experts to engage in a series of workshops to assess the current and future state of museums. In identifying social determinants shaping contemporary culture, such as loneliness, heightened stress, accelerated pace, loss of public trust, and social exclusion, we explored how museums could help address these societal issues through design.

We assessed key design values that shape the visitor experience at museums, homing in on beauty and wonder, sensory environments, and place-based engagement, to deepen our understanding of the social impact of design. We were drawn to research that highlighted the role of atmospheric sensory experiences, neuroarchitecture design, and community-driven frameworks in shaping environments that welcome diversity, support connection, and linger in memory.

These studies demonstrate that the emotional and sensory dimensions of space are fundamental to how people feel acknowledged, oriented, and engaged. In our workshops, we explored how these qualities shape how visitors move, pause, interpret, and form meaning within cultural spaces that hold space for curiosity, reflection, and moments of quiet restoration.

These thoughtful, curated exchanges yielded a strategic platform to position DLR Group as thought leaders in the museum design field. This past year, our recognition in a design showcase at the Venice Architecture Biennale, four presentations at prominent national museum conferences, and the launch of a research project with our Design Research team heralded our strategic approach and provided opportunities to connect with colleagues across the industry, share perspectives, and contribute to the ongoing conversation about the future direction of museums.

Go deeper on these initiatives:

• Exhibiting to a Global Audience: Sensory Design as Regeneration at the Venice Architecture Biennale
• Design Conversation on the National Stage: Community Engagement, Rebuilding Trust, and Supporting Cultural Healing presented at various conferences
• Liminal Space and Atmospheres: 2026 Research Study 

Exhibiting to a Global Audience: Sensory Design as Regeneration

“Tactile” at the Venice Biennale:

Our participation in the Time Space Existence exhibition at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale marked an important moment for our collective research on atmosphere and sensory experience, one that reached a global audience of architects and designers. Our installation, “Tactile,” presented an immersive sensory environment as a site of heightened consciousness and regeneration. Specifically, this installation considers the needs of neurodivergent individuals for spaces that offer restoration and wellbeing.

“Tactile” was designed and built by Associate and Interior Designer Sammy Rupp, IIDA, and Principal and Global Design Leader Tim Ganey, AIA, LEED AP, in collaboration with visual and sound artist Thessia Machado. The exhibit invites reflection on how neuro-inclusive design supports unique ways of thinking, perceiving, and interacting. More broadly applied, the installation demonstrated how atmosphere and transitional spaces can emotionally anchor all museum visitors and cultivate a sense of belonging.

Born from our internal grant program featuring Rupp’s research on fiber art and furniture prototype studies, the idea became loudly recognized on the global stage. The exhibition welcomed nearly 370,000 visitors, social media followers, and over 137,500 website visits. International and national media, including AD Italia, The Architects’ Journal, Dezeen, ArchDaily, The Architectural Review, designboom, STIRworld, Venezia News, and more, covered the exhibition. “Tactile” was one of five shortlisted in the Design category for the 2025 European Cultural Centre Awards.

Design Conversation on the National Stage: Community Engagement, Rebuilding Trust, and Supporting Cultural Healing

DLR Group shaped national conversations by curating panels that brought together diverse voices from museums, cultural institutions, and design leadership.

Building Museums Symposium (St. Louis):

In March, our team presented on the panel “What I Would’ve Told My Younger Self About Building a Museum” at the Building Museums Symposium. Panelists used the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s transformation to narrate how complex cultural projects evolve through uncertainty, collaboration, and deep coordination between design teams and community stakeholders. Steadfast leadership, a clear vision, and striking a balance between architectural expression, exhibit design, and science communication were paramount to the project’s successful realization.

Panelists: Cleveland Museum of Natural History President and CEO Sonia Winner joined Principal and Global Architecture Leader Josh Haney, AIA, and Design Leader Mark Morris, AIA.

Alliance of American Museums Annual Meeting (Los Angeles):

We continued this dialogue in May at the 2025 Alliance of American Museums Annual Meeting, where DLR Group led two sessions centered on cultural healing and trust.

The first, “A Monuments Project: Designing Community Trust for Commemorative Landscapes,” focused on a community engagement design process following the removal of the Christopher Columbus statue in Columbus, Ohio. The session explored community-centered engagement and strategies for creating memorial landscapes that support collaborative storytelling and healing.

Panelists: Senior Associate and Senior Architect Emily Moore, AIA, Designing Local Managing Principal Amanda Golden, Indigenous Design Studio + Architecture Design Principal Tamarah Begay, and KiMISTRY CEO and Founder Kimberly Brazwell.

As consultants for Designing Local, our work for the “Reimagining Columbus“ project and the collective cultural competency committee reflects a new framework for social justice projects;  one that replaces a linear design process with a circular process aligned with equitable community engagement and indigenous practice. The second session, ”How Can Museum Programs Facilitate Cultural Healing in an Age of Distrust?“ examined case studies across multiple scales to show how storytelling can rebuild trust and honor marginalized perspectives. Highlighted were strategies that reconnect communities to cultural spaces and support new interpretations of historical material.

Panelists: Principal and Global Cultural+Performing Arts Leader Dan Clevenger, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, The Rock Foundation Managing Director and Chief Curator Sean Mooney, The Heard Museum Deputy Director & Chief Operating Officer John Bulla, and Designing Local Managing Principal Amanda Golden.

Western Museums Association Annual Meeting (Reno, Nev.):

“Uncovering Blind Spots – Strategies to Engage Communities in Exhibit and Installation Design Projects” examined how community engagement can positively inform the way museum teams conceptualize, design, and implement exhibitions and installations. Panelists shared lessons learned from projects that received challenging feedback and how those experiences shaped new tools and approaches for connecting earlier with communities during the process. The panel revealed that dialogue and reflection can strengthen relevance, inclusivity, and design outcomes.

Panelists: Brittney Corrales Curator at the ASU Art Museum and Jill Snyder of Snyder Consultancy, Principal and Global Cultural+Performing Arts Leader Dan Clevenger, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, and moderated by ASU Art Museum Director Miki Garcia.

Museum Trustees Association Fall Forum (Nashville, Tenn.):

“Designing for the Digital Age,” co-presented with Carol Duke, Assoc. AIA examined how digital media is now integral to museum culture. The discussion emphasized how digital tools can support exhibition interpretation and visitor engagement. Based on case studies from the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Heard Museum, and the Arizona Science Center, the conversation outlined design opportunities to broaden access, encourage flexibility, deepen community impact, and expand possibilities for immersive storytelling.

Liminal Space and Atmospheres: 2026 Research Study

Come 2026, in partnership with our Design Research team led by Principal and Design Research Leader B Sanborn, AIA Allied, EDAC, and Associate and Design Researcher Teeka Gray, and select art museum partners, we will launch a study on atmospheres and liminal spaces: the thresholds, paths, and transitions that guide movement, pause, and orientation. Successfully realized museum designs now pivot toward a more fluid visitor journey in light of a new cultural norm that positions museums as social platforms. By viewing liminal spaces through a more purposeful lens, we hope to identify patterns of social behavior that will lead to design strategies that make transitions more welcoming and supportive for a diverse range of museum visitors.

As we look ahead, we aspire to advance cultural spaces that feel vivid, inclusive, and human-centered, designing even transitional moments with care. This work will continue to evolve alongside communities and institutions, supported by research, collaboration, and a shared belief that museums can play an essential role in cultural wellbeing. By crafting environments that cultivate belonging and honor the full spectrum of human experience, we help imagine museum futures that inform, inspire, and genuinely support the people who move through them.

This piece was co-authored with Jill Snyder, Snyder Consultancy.

Learn more about DLR Group’s approach to redefining the visitor experience through museum design.