The State Museum of Pennsylvania
Comprehensive Plan for Exhibits and Visitor Services

The Museum is housed in a circa 1965 modernist building listed on the National Register of Historic Places, adjacent to the Capitol Complex in Harrisburg. Its widely varied collections include flora, fauna, and fossils, as well as art, artifacts, and documents that commemorate and preserve Pennsylvania’s history.  

Our Comprehensive Plan, completed with Gallagher & Associates, evaluates the existing conditions of the Museum, outlines needs, and provides a road map guiding future projects involving both exhibits and visitor services. Stakeholder engagement contributed to design options and final recommendations for the entrance, visitor amenities, galleries, planetarium, auditorium, and building circulation routes. The Plan includes strategies for improved wayfinding, exhibit design, interpretive themes, and the use of technology, with the ground floor reconfigured as an orientation/retail/café space that is free of charge, and new events space and an outdoor terrace created on the fifth floor.