Crossing Gallery and Education Center

For decades, the Frontier Culture Museum has sought to create a dedicated indoor facility that explores the intersections of diverse cultures that shaped the Shenandoah Valley and colonial America. The new Crossing Gallery and Education Center fulfills this long-held vision, providing a year-round, fully accessible environment for exhibitions, education, and public programs that complement the museum’s renowned outdoor living-history exhibits.

Located in Staunton, Virginia, the new center expands the museum’s capacity to welcome school groups, families, and visitors of all ages while strengthening connections between indoor interpretation and the surrounding historic landscape.

Flexible Galleries and Education Spaces

The approximately 40,000-square-foot Crossing Gallery and Education Center houses permanent and rotating exhibit galleries, flexible studios for education and school group programs, special event space, visitor amenities, ticketing, a museum shop, and administrative areas. The project also includes a new collections storage building, a maintenance facility, and renovations to the existing welcome center to introduce additional educational spaces.

Designed to improve visitor orientation and accessibility in all weather conditions, the new facility provides clear connections among the indoor gallery spaces, event lawn, and outdoor exhibits, enhancing wayfinding and encouraging exploration across the campus.

Contemporary Design Within a Historic Landscape

Led by DLR Group as the design architect, the Crossing Gallery and Education Center is intentionally contemporary in its expression, clearly distinct from the museum’s historic structures. At the same time, its scale, proportions, and materials reference the vernacular character of the surrounding buildings and landscape.

Semi-transparent wood-and-glass facades provide filtered visual connections between interior and exterior spaces while controlling daylight and reducing solar heat gain. The result is a building that bridges past and present—supporting interpretation while respecting the authenticity of the museum’s outdoor exhibits.

Engineering Support for Education-Focused Museum Spaces

Mueller Associates serves as an associate mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineer for the project, collaborating closely with the design team to support the museum’s educational mission and operational needs. Mueller’s involvement builds on earlier feasibility work completed in partnership with Quinn Evans, contributing continuity and technical insight as the project advanced into design.

Mueller’s engineering support helps ensure that the new galleries, education spaces, and visitor amenities perform reliably and efficiently—providing comfortable, flexible environments that support learning, interpretation, and year-round public use.

Expanding Access to History

By creating a modern, accessible indoor education center, the Frontier Culture Museum is expanding how it shares stories of voluntary and forced migration, cultural exchange, and daily life in early America. The Crossing Gallery and Education Center enhances the museum’s ability to serve broader audiences, deepen educational programming, and connect historic narratives to contemporary visitors—strengthening its role as a regional and statewide cultural resource.