senior architecture project | nevada test site museum and research facility

This project had three parts that were to be built at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site. The first and main structure is the museum to the site itself, nuclear technology, nuclear weapons testing, and how we store nuclear waste. The second structure was the research facility to learn more about how to store nuclear waste properly and to expand our use of nuclear technology on the planet in a clean way. The last structure was a long 2 mile walkway and tram that connected the two buildings where patrons could either walk to tram to see the research being done as well as experience the vastness of the test site and the craters created by tested weapons. Part of the project was to use the storage of the waste itself in the structures themselves so in the rendering above the rock boxes would actually be filled with vitrified or glass sealed pieces of nuclear waste. Also seen in the detail model of the walkway the wall would be constructed of glass against a stack of the same glass encased pieces. Obviously this would never be built however the point was to create a large complex of multiple parts and still have them be a part of one theme to the building types, materials used and thought processes behind the individual pieces.