The Museum of Science and Industry of Chicago (MSI) is one of the largest museums in the world which claims as its home a beautiful, historic space, the only permanent building constructed for the Columbian Exposition of 1893. Approximately two million visitors from around the world make the internationally-known museum their destination each year, drawn by the unique collections and the many interactive displays of science and technology. It is also the oldest museum dedicated to science in the Western hemisphere. It was, therefore, natural for the museum to create an entirely new exhibition dedicated to the incredible inventions and genius of Leonardo Da Vinci, whose work often explored science and its industrial applications.

Ravenswood Studio Inc. (RSI) is also internationally known for its fabrication of elaborate opera and theater sets. Although the sets we build for the entertainment industry represent only a portion of our business of what we call experiential environments, lately our knowledge and expertise of the theater has become very important to our museum clients striving to create immersive environments that involve their guests as active participants in the exhibits they are seeking to develop.

In the early planning stage, David Woody, director of design and development for MSI, met with Kevin Snow, Ravenswood Studio’s designer who has a technical theater and lighting background, to discuss the exhibit. Together they reviewed the Ravenswood portfolio of opera and theater sets looking for the creative spark as well as the technical knowledge that would be applicable to creating a stage setting for Leonardo Da Vinci’s astounding inventions.

The museum was looking for a design partner that had a firm grasp of both the artistic and technological skills to design, develop and fabricate and install the experiential environment they wanted to create for museum patrons to be immersed in Leonardo’s world. RSI was commissioned to design the workshop, including the lighting, fabrication and installation.

At Ravenswood Studio our creative process always begins with research. It is the first step we use in a multi-phase design process with all of our commercial and institutional clients. It allows everyone involved in the process to explore various ideas and provides a pathway for the development of only the best concepts. The determination of project goals and design attributes early in the process creates a set of evaluation tools that can be used throughout the project to insure that only the best and most relevant concepts proceed to completion.

We began by reviewing the project goals and objectives and meeting with the MSI exhibit staff. The museum wanted an exhibit that went beyond Leonardo’s paint brush and his famous artistic creations. They wanted people to discover the inventions and ingenuity of a man who was far ahead of his time while exploring the myths and legends surrounding his life. In addition, they wanted to make the exhibit relevant to contemporary society; they wanted to show how his legacy inspires us today with an exhibit of the work of some modern day geniuses.

John Beckman, exhibit producer for MSI, said the museum wanted to allow guests to explore Leonardo’s life like never before. Guests would take an immersive and interactive journey through more than 60 large-scale models of his most innovative designs – all produced in vivid detail from his original drawings.

Upon entering the exhibit, visitors see a brief movie about Leonardo, which provides a time line of his life and the context for his inventions and other work. It also explores how he thought and how he worked. This is a necessary prelude to the display of several dozen scale models of some of his most notable machines, many of which are hands-on working models that demonstrate various scientific principles.

The 20,000 square foot exhibit was divided into three separate rooms or components. The models of Leonardo’s inventions fill the first section and the inspired work of contemporary geniuses occupies the final room. The heart of the exhibit is Leonardo’s workshop, which is the critical central gallery that ties the entire exhibit together. Project designer Snow, a credentialed lighting designer, also set up the lighting for both the workshop and the third room gallery that celebrated the modern Leonardo’s.

The recreation of Leonardo’s Renaissance workshop was an essential feature of the exhibit. It is a transitional element between the past and the present, between the display of the working models and the exhibit of modern groundbreaking inventions. It had to absolutely engage visitors.

The attraction of the workshop for visitors was that they were able to wander around at their leisure and literally play with different aspects of Leonardo’s work. For instance, two life-size, functional catapults were situated at opposite ends of the room. This was popular with many guests of all ages as they were allowed to launch soft Nerf balls at the opposing catapult that, of course, could also fire back.

The visitor could also build a bridge, try to fly like a bird or leaf through the Codex Atlanticus; see and read about the cryptex from the movie The Da Vinci Code; and experience Leonardo’s famous backward mirror writing. Consolidating all these artifacts and activities into one gallery was the encompassing objective of our design mission.

To bring this all to life, Snow began by studying the museum’s documentation as well as all of the items to be displayed. He then began to create an image library of period architecture for reference, noting which features supported the museum’s stated objectives. Their initial concepts were drawn and Snow reproduced his ideas for presentations so they resembled the parchment and ink drawings of the Renaissance.

Beckman and the design team reviewed the three concepts and selected the one that had the right balance of display space, artistic quality and satisfied the basic exhibit and design attributes set for the project. We were developing a large-scale theater stage setting where the museum guests would become active players so we were looking for features that supported both the Da Vinci story as well as enhanced the visitor experience.

Michael Shapiro, Ravenswood founder, says the studio staff is always eager to apply its theatrical sensibilities to work on other projects outside of the theater and opera world, such as this museum exhibit. Our scenic artists helped establish the rustic appearance of the workshop, where visitors can build, play with and encounter several of Leonardo’s most fantastic works. Theatrical scenic art design techniques were used to create the brick barrel vaults between the columns of the exhibit. Painted canvas was used to cover the existing museum columns to turn them into brick support columns for the vaulted arches designed using a flat theatrical construction that was quick and easy to install.

A large scale, 26' high x 40' wide, painted wall graphic of Leonardo’s never-realized giant sculpture of the Duke of Milan’s horse, was recreated from his drawings to demonstrate how enormous the sculpture was to be and to compliment the portion of the exhibit that explains the casting technique.

A big wrought iron gate, several hanging “oil” lamps and several easels were designed and fabricated to further enhance the overall workshop ambiance. The easels, designed to be similar to what Leonardo would have used 500 years ago, are actually interactive computer stations capable of holding a computer and a plasma touch screen.

The easels displayed one of the most interesting and famous of Leonardo’s notebooks, the Codex Atlanticus. Leonardo3 (L3) is the media company that created a digital version of the Codex based on scans of the original manuscripts offering a brand new, exclusive and high-resolution means of interacting with Leonardo. For the first time in history it is available to the general public. 3-D models spring from the pages, engaging the viewer as they attempt to build Leonardo’s machines using components from his sketches.

This exhibition, which was open from April 14, 2006 to September 4, 2006, attracted international attention and was the site of a presidential news conference. It was exciting for museum staff because President Bush was the first sitting president to visit the MSI. He held his press conference outside the entrance of the exhibition and then toured the exhibit. He was fascinated by the Codex Atlanticus and spent some time with the interactive easel display. He also took interest in the innovations that were on display in the modern-day Leonardo’s portion of the exhibit.

The museum spent a year putting the entire exhibition together and Carlo Pedretti, director of the Armand Hammer Center for Leonardo Studies at UCLA, said, “In my opinion, my estimation, this is one of the best exhibits on Da Vinci.” Ravenswood Studio is pleased that its expertise in opera and theater contributed to a great museum experience for the many visitors to the Leonardo Da Vinci, Man, Inventor, Genius exhibit presented by the Museum of Science and Industry. eb

All drawings: Kevin Snow, Ravenswood Studios Inc.

All photos: Scott Brownell, MSI Chicago