Centerbrook to Participate in Mystic Seaport Exhibit

Centerbrook Architects & Planners is set to participate in Mystic Seaport Museum’s first exhibit in the Thompson Exhibition Building since reopening during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The exhibit, “A Way With Wood: Celebrating Craft,” opened July 3 and showcases the many ways people transform one of nature’s most malleable materials to objects of utility, art, and beauty. The theme is apropos for the Centerbrook-designed Thompson Building, with its distinctive large timber features that evoke wooden ships and celebrate the art of shipbuilding.

Centerbrook’s exhibit will run from Aug. 28-Sept. 3 and feature the firm’s industrial designer and model maker, Patrick McCauley, who will fabricate a chair from the Centerbrook Chairshop. The Chairshop is an in-house program where staff members design and build a chair incorporating diverse materials, construction techniques, and finishes. Chairs from previous classes will be on display, as well as imagery that celebrates the history of the program and its participants and describes the design process. McCauley will be available to converse with museum patrons each day as he works.

Mystic Seaport Museum will celebrate Woodcraft Weekend Aug. 29-30, with Centerbrook Principal Chad Floyd, FAIA a featured speaker. Floyd was the principal designer of the Thompson Building, which opened in 2016. He will discuss why and how wood was used in the building’s design on Saturday, Aug. 29 at 11 a.m., in the Thompson Masin Room.