Port of Ludington Maritime Museum

All Exhibits in New Museum
Mason County Historical Society – Ludington, Michigan
2016-Ongoing

LVH began working with the Mason County Historical Society in 2016 to inventory the society’s collection of maritime artifacts, develop the curatorial content, prepare schematic design documents and establish budgets for a new  8000-square foot highly immersive museum to be housed in the 1934 Coast Guard Station at Ludington. The museum’s mission is to celebrate the region’s Coast Guard, carferry, and commercial harbor history.

After a successful fundraising campaign, LvH launched into design development for exhibits and interior design of the to convert it into a museum.  The work also included the design of the gift store, toilet rooms, and theater, as well as providing video content for the theater. LvH provided all the graphics for each exhibit and oversaw the development of a number of digital interactives executed by its technology consultant, including an immersive pilothouse experience, a virtual ship’s captain, and a virtual Coast Guard officer, among others.  LvH’s contracting team fabricated and installed all exhibits. The museum opened with 13 individual exhibits in 2017, including the loan of one exhibit previously designed by LVH for another museum.

Since the opening, LvH developed three new exhibits, including one about the Armistice Day Storm of 1940 in 2020 to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the storm.   

 Ludington Maritime Heritage Trail
Mason County Historical Society – Ludington, Michigan
Permanent

LvH curated a dozen historical topics for development into a maritime Heritage Trail, one of several historic trails in Mason County, and the only one with physical signage. Locations for each interpretive panel were carefully selected for relevance to the topic and historic photos selected judiciously and text written tightly to support the topic. LvH also drafted audio dialogue from the perspective of a historical character to narrate the panel through a QR reader “powered by “OnCell” and edited actors’ recordings for the application.