When The Museum of Flight’s new Space Gallery opens at the end of the month, it will house a retired space shuttle trainer—the only one of its kind in the world.

Studio SC created an environmental graphics program for this new building, a 15,500-square-foot-building, located across the road from the Museum’s main building. SRG Partnership designed the gallery, which was built by Sellen Construction.

One thing the Museum wanted was a bracketing system on the building’s exterior identity wall so they could hang vertical banners promoting the gallery and the Museum. Expanding on this idea, we worked with Creo Industrial Arts to design and fabricate a system of movable brackets, which allows for flexible configurations, and gives the Museum increased ability to create displays that fit its changing needs. 

To embrace the “outer space” feel, the building’s exterior wall is painted black and the identity is halo-lit from behind the letters. The stainless steel bracket system is composed of a series of round discs placed in a grid pattern on the wall. Against the black background, the discs create the effect of stars in space.

The building will be completed in mid-August, and the Full Fuselage Trainer will be installed and open to the public early next year.

Image: Rendering of the exterior identity wall at The Museum of Flight’s Space Gallery