DDI provided interior design, architectural, and branding design services to reposition the Bartol Atrium to have a greater sense of place and intuitive wayfinding. DDI’s Environmental Graphics team created new branding and signage to orient visitors to ticketing, guest services, membership desks, and retail store.

The planning and design challenge was to work with a limited budget and to consolidate seven museum stores into a major retail destination. The Sci-Store featuring special exhibit merchandise, grossed 3 times the revenue of the seven stores combined in the first year.

The 6,500 square foot bi-level Sci-Store was completed as the first phase of renovations to the Bartol Atrium at The Franklin Institute. The store was designed as an extension to a ramped circulation path that forms the “heart “of The Franklin Institute’s Atrium. The Institute is Pennsylvania’s most visited museum with more than 700,000 visitors annually.