Repurposed barn silo as an observation tower at Belle Grove

Planning

Silorama Concept, Belle Grove, Middleton, VA

Planning often begins when an RFP comes across a designer’s desk. What happens next? Typically a process, concept, schedule, budget, team, and references, are asked for. Alternatively, an organization realizes that an interpretive master plan is called for to start a longer process of development.

SGP+D faces these and other requirements with a willingness to pitch in, brainstorm, and deliver options in an iterative collaborative flow quickly. Often we will recommend a Discovery Phase where resources are discovered, subject matter experts and stakeholders are interviewed, and prioritized goals are established.

We look forward to exploring your project across any or all phases including:

Master Planning
Discovery
Identity
Concepting and content development
Fundraising and community outreach materials

Case Study

Scenic Hudson’s new headquarters exhibit space, Poughkeepsie, NY

An interactive exhibit with animated characters and multiple display screens showing nature scenes. Several visitors, including children and adults, are engaging with the exhibits.

Early March 2025

Installing Scenic Hudson's new gallery exhibits.

Our RFP concepts provoked discussion but did not survive onboarding. But the clock was ticking, and with key client input, SGIXD focused on physically evoking aspects of their graphic branding.

Interior of a modern building with large windows displaying mountain landscapes, ceiling fan, and track lighting.

With 2 months to launch, precise coordination of MEP, cabinetry, audio-visual systems, and graphic production delivered the project for gala attendees to enjoy on June 21, 2025.

Historic Sites

Front view of a two-story wooden storefront with stairs leading to an entrance door, large windows displaying chairs and a console table, and black and white photographs on the lower panels.

Sketch of a bar with a counter, two people sitting on the other side, and one person standing behind the counter at the Tenement Museum's Schneider's sSaloon.

Schneider’s Saloon, The Tenement Museum The plan was to have interpreted German saloons and painted a picture of the Reconstruction-era Lower East Side when it was known by its residents as Kleindeutschland (Little Germany). Regrettably, NYC denied the permit citing the mix of school groups and alcohol use.

Illustrated site plan showing car parking, potential solar panels on shed roof, exit for all vehicles, handicap and staff parking, bus parking, and entry with drop-off area.

Sketch of a barn at Belle Grove that will turn into the Visitor Center.

Belle Grove Plantation, Middleton, VA Guerin facilitated a planning workshop charged with developing ideas for a welcome center in Belle Grove’s 1918 bank barn. After the two day workshop, we consolidated all discussions and options into an comprehensive report with illustrations and a summary version for use in fundraising. The Silorama was to be an observation deck for guests to look out over the countryside.

Cross-section of a building at Oatlands showing locations of graphic projections, panels, and an archaeology lab, with arrows indicating visitor paths and entrances.

Floor plan of the Tenement Museum's proposed saloon with labeled zones including service bar zone, media bar zone, back room zone, and various furniture and fixtures such as tables, chairs, and a mechanical room.

Oatlands pilot test of projected graphics in an architecturally sensitive area of the Carter barn

Diagram showing visitor flow and directional signage at a farm or garden. Includes paths, gates, and signs indicating directions to Carter Barn, a barrier-free path, and other features. Red arrows illustrate visitor movement; yellow circles highlight sign locations.

Oatlands, Leesburg, VA As part of a large team headed by Li-Saltzman Architects, Guerin created a schematic interpretive master plan to tell the story of George Carter and the agricultural history of Oatlands, including a focus on the large population of enslaved workers. Testing showed how proximity-activated projected graphics eliminated the visual impact of physical graphics.

Sing Sing Prison Visitor Center, Ossining, NY Guerin and Li-Saltzman Architects led the master plan’s development that is still operative today. The prison’s history was to be interpreted in the light of changing punishment philosophies. The 1825 prison stone cellblock, now just a shell, was to be reached via a secure walkway where a framework evoked the density and scale of the cells and the lives of the prisoners within.

Hand-drawn diagram of a building at Strawbery Banke showing interior and exterior effects and features, including effects for sound, projections, internal lighting, FX, and loose decorations.

Strawbery Banke, Portsmouth, NH The master plan addressed interpretation of the evolution of the 11-acre site over the past 300 years, enhanced the connection between the site and downtown Portsmouth, and collected dispersed administrative facilities.

Guerin conceived a series of transformable, house-shaped stages where members of the Banke’s acting troupe would reenact both prosaic and dramatic moments in history.

Layout of the Sign Sing Prison Visitor Center with labeled areas including a mechanical room, power house, death house, administration, gift shop, and a corridor connecting these sections, along with a film description about a prison and its history.

Case Study

Staten Island Institute of Arts & Sciences, St George, Staten Island, NY

Night view of the Staten Island Institute for Arts & Sciences Discovery Center.

People walking through Digiscura, a futuristic, spiral-shaped corridor filled with multiple screens displaying various images and news updates at the Staten Island Institute for Arts & Sciences Discovery Center.

Model of the exhibits at the Staten Island Institute for Arts & Sciences Discovery Center.

Cityscape exhibit at the Staten Island Institute for Arts & Sciences Discovery Center.

Waterways exhibit at the Staten Island Institute for Arts & Sciences Discovery Center.

Futuristic control room with multiple large screens displaying city landscapes, people working at consoles, and a circular digital floor with a city map, at the Staten Island Institute for Arts & Science

On September 11, 2001 we were presenting the project to NYC Parks for approval. From our 34th and 7th Avenue office we watched the towers fall and the project ended on the spot.

Nonetheless, it would have been a ground breaking interpretive experience integrated into a building envelope designed Peter Eisenmann.

At the fore was live data to be used to generate dynamic and interactive interpretive media, commonplace now, but then, near unique.

At middle left, Digiscura expressed a cacophony of NYC news and GIS information leading visitors into the experience. Cityscape is pictured mid- right. And at lower left is Waterways whose content connected industrial uses, tides, winds, harbor tracking information, and wildlife sites and migration patterns in real time.

At lower right, Mindscape, was a group interactive system that collectively created a city of the future. Think Sim City on steroids.

Guerin was the project principal and design director.

On September 11, 2001 we were presenting the project to NYC Parks for approval. From our 34th and 7th Avenue office we watched the towers fall and the project ended on the spot.

Nonetheless, it would have been a ground breaking interpretive experience integrated into a building envelope designed Peter Eisenmann.

At the fore was live data to be used to generate dynamic and interactive interpretive media, commonplace now, but then, near unique.

Concepts and Outcomes

National Museum of Australia

At the National Museum of Australia, a Sketch of an indoor aquarium exhibit featuring a large fish tank with various fish and sea creatures, informational displays, and visitors observing.

At the National Museum of Australia, a Exhibit with fishing equipment including nets, poles, and a boat, displayed on a rocky area against a backdrop of a large black and white landscape painting.

A sketch of an indoor exhibition space showcasing a vintage car, artwork, and display boards, with architectural details of the ceiling and walls.

Interior of a museum with children exploring exhibits, including a large map of Australia and a display case with a mechanical excavator.

As Lead Exhibition Designer for the effort, Guerin led a large team to conceive and design over 50,000 square feet of exhibitions including media, and artifact display. Key to success was his move, with family, to Canberra for several months.

Shown here are a few of the dozens of concept drawings, often done while sitting with the curators and interpretive development team. They were scanned, uploaded to Amaze Design in Boston (the IXD prime) colorized, and returned for review the next day—a benefit of opposite time zones!

The development process was complex but well covered in Dimiti Reed’s book Tangled Destinies: The National Museum of Australia.

At the National Museum of Australia, a Museum exhibit with display cases and informational panels, person in wheelchair in foreground

Illustration of a museum or historical display with mannequins dressed in clothing, a framed map on the wall, and an enclosed area in the background showing a museum room with artifacts and displays.

At the National Museum of Australia, a Drawing of a museum exhibit with a dinosaur skeleton, a person looking at paintings, and a woman walking past a sign that reads 'Fossil House'.

Display case with various ancient tools and artifacts in a museum, with informational signs and flags nearby.

Traveling Exhibit

X-Files Science

Using the popular TV series as a hook for science education, this traveling exhibit came close to fruition before the show was cancelled.

The line art was colorized by James Hollingsworth and Kitty Smith and it remains an unfulfilled dream to create an astrobiology exhibit. See my workshop talk here.

Activations

Future Cities: Phases

Phases is an artwork with multiple iterations and versions, one of which was the Future of Cities installation shown here. Developed by AV&C, concept renderings by Guerin.

Activations and pop-ups are exceptional projects in that teams can be unwieldily, budgets tight, priorities shifty, and timelines short.

Phases is an artwork with multiple iterations and versions, one of which was the Future of Cities installation shown here.

Guerin, while Sales Director at AV&C, was responsible for the renderings and technical design of the environment and the rest of the team completed software development, system engineering, and fabrication.

People walk through a modern indoor space with a circular illuminated structure and a car display.

People walking inside a large indoor space with an intricate metal truss ceiling and a suspended circular system of Robotic mirrors that steer projected light shining through fog or haze in a dark room.

Top view of a technical drawing with measurements of a structure, including a truss, a platform, and two boxes, with dimensions labeled in feet and inches.

Robotic mirrors steer projected light shining through fog or haze in a dark room.