PROJECT  Heritage Museums & Gardens Barbey Family Welcome Center

LOCATION  Sandwich, Massachusetts, US​

PROJECT COMPLETION DATE  4/15/2025

Firm(s): GWWO Architects 

Design Team Members: Alan Reed, FAIA, LEED AP; Kate Scurlock, AIA; Kimmie Kim; Lisa Andrews, AIA, LEED AP BD+C; David Ritter, AIA; Grace Amoruso; Pat Fava

Client: Heritage Museums & Gardens
Contractor/Construction Manager: Dellbrook JKS

Landscape Architect: Ray Dunetz Landscape Architects

Structural Engineer: WSP USA Buildings, Inc.

Civil Engineer: Horsley Witten Group

Mechanical Engineer: Henry Adams LLC

Electrical Engineer: Henry Adams LLC

Photographer(s): Scott Norsworthy
Additional project support: AV Design: Acoustical Design Collaborative, 7509 L’Hirondelle Club Road, Ruxton, MD 21204; Neil Shade, nts@akustx.com, 410.821.5930
Geotechnical Engineer: Pare Corp., 10 Lincoln Road, Suite 210, Foxboro, MA 02035; Brian Nehring, bnehring@parecorp.com, 508.543.1755
Cost Estimator: Fennessy Consulting Services, 27 Glen Street, Suite 8, Stoughton, MA 02072; Seamus Fennessy, sfennessy@fennessyconsulting.com, 781.344.4464

PROJECT SUMMARY

Heritage Museums & Gardens' new Barbey Family Welcome Center in Sandwich, MA embraces discovery, cultivating a spirit of exploration for over 100,000 visitors annually. As the most-visited cultural attraction on Cape Cod, Heritage Museums & Gardens models sustainability and educates visitors on the impacts of climate change through their extensive collection of plants and artifacts. Replacing an aging, undersized, and confusing facility, the new center gracefully and intuitively transitions visitors from the world outside to the beautiful and serene setting by previewing all Heritage has to offer.

Nestled into Cape Cod's 'kettle and kame' landscape, the new welcome center's four stone and wood structures define an inviting courtyard for queuing, gathering, teaching, and resting. Inspired by the existing Heritage campus architecture and respectful of the local historical vernacular, the volumes are playfully arranged to encourage visitors to explore and discover. Stone garden walls and low-sloped roofs blend the architecture and landscape together, minimizing the visual impact from the road while providing a clear and intuitive destination that has transformed the visitors’ arrival experience.

Entering the new arrival plaza, groups of all ages have an opportunity to gather and decompress before entering the gardens. The Barbey Family Welcome Center allows visitors to engage with Heritage staff, plan their visit, and learn about the history of Heritage through new interpretive exhibits. Stunning views of the site’s signature water flume and lush landscape from the visitor center and thoughtfully placed overlooks create a memorable first impression that beckons visitors to enter the grounds, where they will find new opportunities to learn, gather, and reflect. Improving access for all, the new Hydrangea Path connects the welcome center to the Arbor Bowl, enhancing the collection and providing a new accessible loop to explore the gardens.

Quiet, yet powerful, the welcome center embodies sustainable values through net-zero strategies including a highly efficient building envelope featuring continuous R21 insulation on the exterior walls and a triple-glazed curtain wall, all-electric systems, on-site renewables through solar panels, sun-shading roof overhangs, and demand meters to track energy use. The building energy performance over the first year of occupancy achieved an EUI of 2.72, 95% better than a baseline building’s energy performance. Breaking down the welcome center into multiple structures allows the buildings to operate separately, conserving energy when the campus is closed to the public in the winter months, while also encouraging visitors to explore intuitively. The plaza’s permeable paving filters rainwater into a system below that recharges the ground. Supporting Heritage’s mission to provide leadership in sustainable design, the new welcome center serves as a model for sustainable construction and provides on-site interpretive opportunities for visitors to learn more about environmentally responsible practices that can be applied to each visitors’ daily life. The project simultaneously addressed the need for increased capacity, improved circulation, and usability, all while staying in line with Massachusetts’ and Heritage’s decarbonization goals.

JURY COMMENTS (if applicable)

MEDIA FOR DOWNLOAD
Project PDF

IMAGES (Captions and Photographer Credit)
1. Entry / Scott Norsworthy
2. Entry / Scott Norsworthy
3. Gift Shop / Scott Norsworthy
4. Courtyard / Scott Norsworthy
5. Lobby / Scott Norsworthy
6. Courtyard with View of Flume / Scott Norsworthy
7. Exterior View of Visitor Center / Scott Norsworthy
8. Aerial / Scott Norsworthy