Legacy of the Lakes Museum

Alexandria, Minnesota

The Legacy of the Lakes Museum is sited in the idyllic landscape between lakes Winona and Agnes. The campus provides exhibit space for classic, refurbished boats and fishing memorabilia as well as a history exhibit outlining grand hotels and resorts of years past. The campus buildings are surrounded by multiple outdoor spaces and picturesque gardens. In order to better serve the community and utilize the many attributes of the existing campus, an event pavilion was conceived that could host family reunions, wedding parties, and conferences throughout the year. The pavilion would provide revenue for the Museum and an ideal setting for various community functions.

The pavilion design utilized an existing 2,755 s.f. storage facility on the campus, and provided two additions totaling 918 s.f. for a total of 3,673 s.f. of enclosed, conditioned event and exhibit space. Within the renovated facility are housed event and exhibit space, bar, catering kitchen, storage space, and two restrooms that would serve the campus. In addition, a 1,200 s.f. outdoor covered patio was provided directly adjacent to the event space. Large overhead doors to the event space can open up to the covered patio, allowing for great flexibility and providing a direct connection from the new facility to the surrounding gardens.

The material palette harkens back to industrial buildings of the past as well as the maritime nature of the existing campus; the materials included exposed steel structural frames and cables, corrugated galvanized metal cladding, and concrete masonry unit wall construction.