Cold War Museum

Nome, Alaska
Columbia GSAPP
60,000 SF
2015

This proposed project repurposes and rehabilitates four monolithic decommissioned Cold War–era radio dishes and incorporates them into a hub of Arctic tourism and cultural exchange, combining artists’ workspaces, a boutique hotel, and a geopolitical history museum. The museum is situated underground because of climactic concerns, but it simultaneously creates a disorienting loop of circulation that alludes to military bunker architecture. Excavated voids into the underground network create view apertures to the four towers, allowing for brief moments of wayfinding.

The towers also have a strong visual connection to the city of Nome and the Arctic Ocean, which are located four miles downhill from the site. Each existing tower receives a different skin and function. Two of the towers are converted into lodgings, one is converted into an observation tower, and the fourth is clad in a translucent skin, becoming a glowing iconic beacon at night, visible from the city of Nome.