The Park City Museum project renovated and expanded three historic buildings—Old City Hall, the Fire Whistle Tower, and the Old Library—to create a state-of-the-art museum in the heart of Park City’s historic Main Street district. The expanded facility increases the museum area from approximately 8,300 SF to 12,900 square feet providing much needed expanded galleries. 

The museum and the City of Park City desired a museum with a strong public presence while preserving the historic character of the existing Main Street buildings. While the museum is entered through the historic buildings along Main Street, the addition which fronts Swede Alley is where many patrons arrive via the City’s transit center and parking garage. The formerly obscure public walkway along the side of the buildings is opened up and redesigned to provide both a pleasant outdoor space and better access from Swede Alley to Main Street and the museum.

Consistent with the Secretary of the Interiors Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties, the addition is designed to complement the historic buildings, while not mimicking them. It is clad in local sandstone to relate to the masonry of the historic buildings. The addition’s roof line follows the line of the historic buildings such that the full rear elevations of these buildings are preserved and celebrated in the museum interior. A large steel framed display window offers visitors along Swede Alley a glimpse of the exhibits and historic rear elevations inside.

Within the museum a central spine organizes the circulation and provides easy access to the new large open galleries allowing visitors to flow easily from gallery to gallery, in contrast to the dark confined and awkwardly connected spaces of the original museum. A catwalk connects the various exhibition areas, providing yet another vantage point to marvel the larger relics of the town’s past.

The Territorial Jail in the basement of the Old City Hall is preserved and the formerly exterior massive stone-walled spaces are exposed and celebrated within the expanded lower level galleries, providing a striking setting for the museum’s mining exhibits. An opening in the ground floor allows the museum to display for the first time its prized 17 foot tall historic double cage mine elevator which can be viewed from all levels of the museum.