Round Museum

Earth's immense story plays out in this science theater-in-the-round, connecting scientists to visitors with multi-channel surround sound. "This Museum asks four basic questions about the natural sciences—what do we know?, how do we know?, what’s happening now?, how can you participate?"

SECU Daily Planet
North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
Raleigh, NC

Neon fins guide eyes up to a star-shaped space on a round plane. Robert Venturi nods to architect Irving Gill in Axline Court, his addition to the La Jolla museum.

Museum of Contemporary Art
San Diego, CA

If you watch closely, choreographed clocks corners imitate a round in time, “two arms constantly dancing in slow motion around the center.”

A Million Times
by Humans Since 1982
Cooper Hewitt Design Museum
New York, NY

We can rely on a working wheel as long as it is round. Mobility makes this cannon at Fort Delaware a powerful weapon.

Fort Delaware
Delaware City, DE
 

No room for decoration or useless features on a submarine. Every action would have an immediate reaction. In movies, turning a wheel like this inevitably turns the plot to dramatic affect.

1944 WWII Becuna Submarine
Independence Seaport Museum
Philadelphia, PA

From planets to electrons, forces pulling toward a central point create the rounds that make up our universe. It is all relative. The scale of objects in this model of the solar system can be measured against the 87-foot diameter Hayden Sphere. Where the Sphere represents the Sun, Jupiter is 9-feet in diameter, Saturn's rings are 17-feet and Earth is the size of a grapefruit. So how big are you, looking up at Jupiter from the surface of a grapefruit?

The Rose Center for Earth and Space
American Museum of Natural History
New York, NY

10.10.16

Nested in a casemate, this Civil War-era cannon could swivel around to face foes.

Fort Delaware
Delaware City, DE

The 1 billion dollar Revel Casino in Atlantic City was open for a hot New York second before going bankrupt and closing. Rumors abound of its re-opening. Still, its got this cell tower globe sitting on top of it.

The spherical spire of the Hard Rock Cafe is a nod to the restaurant's home as part of the sprawling Trump Taj Mahal complex in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The maharajah palace-themed casino "has enough onion domes and minarets to fill an Indian theme park" (New York Times), and of course does not resemble the actual Taj Mahal at all.