In partnership with the Board of Directors, the museum’s Director and curatorial staff, Kohn Pedersen Fox (the architectural firm responsible for the exterior cladding), and Matt Construction (the general contractor), TSR produced a comprehensive plan to revitalize the museum’s exhibits, programs, operations, event spaces, and overall community impact.

TSR was further contracted to fully design and build out the interior spaces in addition to managing the graphic, content and curatorial development of all exhibits. Throughout this process, TSR worked with and helped manage all vendors and partners to ensure that the project was on time and on budget, while meeting the Board of Director’s ambitious goals and cultivating a truly educational, flexible and rich experience.

The final space included over 25 new exhibits, 132 vehicles, 30 digital interactives, 18 videos, over 300 artifacts and controllable audio/video/lighting systems that brought the museum to life. The three-floor experience was developed in partnership with many organizations that helped fund and provide content to the project including, Maserati North America, the Automobile Club of Southern California, Microsoft, Forza, Pixar, ArtCenter College of Design, BMW, Ford, Tesla, Honda, The Enthusiasts Network, and numerous private collectors and automotive archives.

The Center features five interactive physical components that teach visitors how combustion, fuel injection, transmission, braking and suspension systems work; a number of physical interactives that simulate various scientific principles of car mechanics; sketching and drawing tables; a reading corner; and a race track for game-playing. The space is also home to the CARSpad Experience—an augmented reality tour that takes place throughout the museum’s Industry Floor. The CARSpad Experience, narrated by Cars characters, leads users through the floor’s exhibits to design and build a racecar using lessons learned at each exhibit.

The space was intended to function as the museum’s main destination for Pre-K through 12th grade school groups and included an early child-hood center known as Fort Discover, a learning lab, immersive lobby and fully interactive Training Center in which students and visitors could play through “Operation Safe Passage”—a multi-player gaming experience in which students worked together to address a humanitarian crisis using U.S. Army Training and Doctrine material, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sustainability strategies, GSTEM, U.S. Army Heritage, and Soldiers’ Stories. This phased project was developed in partnership with the Software Engineering Directorate (SED) of the Army, who offered programming support for all interactive elements throughout the design phase, and NMUSA’s Programs and Education department.

TSR was tasked to design the ELC as an active learning environment using formal and informal educational principles and was responsible for providing an initial master plan; design and build drawings of all elements; graphic design of all signage, logos and scenic elements; scripted content for all interactive and video production elements; and the design and development of interactive exhibits.

The ELC project led to further work of similar scope with NMUSA on the design phases of the Army Trail (an outdoor interpretive trail featuring a GSTEM learning lab and group experience called “Operation Isolation” in which groups used the Army’s Science of Survival tactics to navigate the trail), an outdoor Medal of Honor Garden and audio tour, the 360 degree campus theater, the NMUSA website (http://thenmusa.org/), and finally build and installation phases.

The Scenic Route ideated, designed, and fabricated, all of the assets and themes, needed to bring the Carroll Shelby story to life. Told in parallel with the culturally changing norms of the last five decades, this American icon’s story is experienced through the use of interactive touch screens, informative info graphics, custom produced videos, and themed physical environments.

TSR had previously worked with Mullin on several private display spaces, as well as the Mullin West Los Angeles building which contains the collection’s brass era vehicles. The new space was completed in partnership with architect David Hertz, with TSR completing the interior design and fabrication. The style was inspired by the salon at the Grand Palais in Paris, France, which notably hosted the Paris Motor Show from 1910 through the 1960s.

The museum includes a grand salon, theater, art gallery, grand prix racing display area, catering facilities, offices, archive and the Bugatti Club—a multi-functional lounge with display areas, bar and sweeping views of the salon below.

TSR has been responsible for subsequent exhibit installations, providing fabrication, design, curatorial, marketing and consulting support. The Art of Bugatti, which opened in 2013, featured six original interactives, six videos, more than 40 Bugatti automobiles, and over 50 rare and sought-after pieces of furniture and decorative items by Ettore Bugatti’s father Carlo; paintings and drawings by Carlo, his son Rembrandt and granddaughter Lidia; and the Museum’s original casts of Rembrandt’s bronze sculpture.

The school was responsible for providing progressive private education to many prominent Southern Californian women—most famously, child actress Shirley Temple Black ’45, June Lockhart ’43, Candice Bergen ’63, astronaut Sally K. Ride ’68, and Olympian Dara Torres ‘85.

The current school (Harvard-Westlake) has preserved an extensive archive of materials dating back to the school’s founding in 1904, including graduation dresses, uniforms, books, newsletters, dance invitations, scrapbooks, and numerous other two- and three-dimensional objects. TSR was responsible for cataloging and researching these items to develop a thoughtful story that commemorated this history. Custom mounts were created for all items and textile consultants provided recommendations for the intricate hand-built costume displays. In addition to the physical exhibit, an interactive provided access to the school’s rich archive of photos and yearbooks, which were catalogued by TSR and digitized in partnership with the University of California, Los Angeles.

The Wunderground brings together a significant collection of rare vehicles from across the United States as well as original three and two-dimensional artifacts to help tell the Porsche story in the dealership’s underground facility. The space features a conference room and functions as a destination for clubs, organizations and enthusiasts in the region.

The 6,300 square foot interior space was developed in partnership with ArtCenter’s Transportation Design Department and Darin Johnstone Architects. For the grand opening the interior gallery space featured a seven-vehicle exhibit discussing the origins and future of streamlining in automobile design titled Details of Design: Beauty, Aerodynamics and Functionalism. Four vehicles were displayed on the exterior patio, which was elegantly enclosed by metal “fins” that were technically designed and manufactured by TSR.

TSR was responsible for curating the exhibit along with Peter Mullin and designing, developing, fabricating, and installing all exhibit components.