The James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art

Saint Petersburg, FL

In the heart of Saint Petersburg, a 10,000 square foot museum dedicated to the largest collection of Native American and Western art in the world, grows out of a parking garage building that has lent it’s structure to the new. As the angular sand-stone cladded entrance invites you in, it brings with it it’s skin to become it’s interior - wrapping you in the history of of it’s ombre-colored warmth. The surface and texture narrates the story of the Western wildlife landscape and the geology that surrounded these artists and their subject matters. The design process to create this astonishing stone cladding was meticulous, and in order to find the perfect species and color, 6 months was spent on sourcing around the globe. Each piece was then hand-picked at the quarry, and then underwent a meticulous design process to find their specific spot on the exterior. To perfectly create the appearance of the striated landscape of the American Southwest, each stone piece was numbered and organized in numerous renderings and pattern elevations before installed. The metal framing structure created to hold these heavy pieces of stone was a big part of the challenge, as massive sculptural element that makes the entry tower spanned over 150 feet in the air.