Design Division, Inc. 91 Gray Street Amherst MA 01002 413 549 0510 hanke@designdivisoninc.com
Click on photo to link to the oral history recordings from Blue Heron.
INTERPRETIVE EXHIBIT DESIGN
Blue Heron at the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area
Client: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Budget: $1,500,000
Interpretation at Blue Heron is about memory. An oral history project collected interviews and photographs from the former miners and their families. These memories have been preserved in both voice and image in the skeletal metal structures that maintain the volume and shape of the original long-removed miner's houses. Visitors can view the images and artifacts associated with a specific topic covered in each structure as they listen to the voices of the former occupants of the town. The village operated as a “company town” from 1938 until 1962 and is located at the terminus of a scenic rail line. The project received a Presidential Design Award.