Melrose Designer Helps Shape New Visitor Center at Yellowstone

 After seven years in the making, a Melrose man saw his design for the exhibition center at Yellowstone National Park become a reality earlier this summer. The new $27 million center officially opened to the public mid-August sitting directly across from the famous Old Faithful geyser.

Melrose resident Mike Biddle works as director of design for Boston design firm Christopher Chadbourne & Associates, which created the interactive exhibits inside what the New York Times called "A Cathedral to the Shrine of Nature."

"It's not so much of a building issue for us, it's really about what we want to get across to the visitor," Biddle said.

Biddle said a typical Old Faithful visitor travels through the park at little differently than perhaps at another other national park. Biddle said the typical visitor—and there are about 7,000 of them per day during the summer peak—travels in pulses through the park, with a stop at the geyser to hopefully see it erupt about every 60 to 90 minutes.

Biddle said one of the challenges was to make the public understand why the eruptions happen in a fun and exciting way.

"We incorporated a number of interactive exhibits," Biddle said, "and we added some great animation and sound effects."

Biddle said voice-over artist Fred Newman, who has worked on a number of movies and is a staple on radio show A Prairie Home Companion, helped with an eigh-step sound effect piece. 

There are also educational displays that focus on the park's hydrothermal features.

"Everyone knows that Old Faithful erupts," Biddle explains. " But the challenge was to help people understand why in a new and exciting way."

Biddle adds that another challenge of creating the exhibits was to encourage visitors to explore other parks of Yellowstone.

"We really wanted to encourage the people of all ages to get out of the building and explore as well," Biddle said.

Biddle adds there is a beautiful photography display on hand as well as a diorama of the wildlife in the park, as well as 3-D graphics and exhibits that focus on the many creatures that live in the underground in the hot springs.

Biddle said that the seven years he spent working on the project really paid off.

Illinois native has done design work in Melrose, too

Hailing from Lombard, IL, Biddle studied theater design at Northern Illinois University. After working in the field designing costumes and sets, Biddle then worked for the Chicago History Society (now the Chicago History Museum) before he was eventually recruited by Christopher Chadbourne & Associates of Boston 10 years ago. 

As Director of Design for Chadbourne, Biddle has worked on such projects as The Price of Freedom installation at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. and The National River Museum in Dubuque, Iowa. 

"I got to see the park change year to year," Biddle said.  "It really was a fascinating experience."

Biddle's expertise in design has also graced the floors of Memorial Hall here in Melrose this past year—Biddle was instrumental in the re-designing of the floor plan for the Melrose Arts Festival last April.

"I really wanted the festival to have an interactive feel as well," Biddle said.  "Rather than going from row to row in a straight line like past years, I made it so foot traffic kind of was able to meander from exhibit to exhibit, hopefully findings some wonderful surprise around the corner."

With the visitor's center at Yellowstone behind him, Biddle is now looking forward to working on a number of new projects, including The Army Museum in Arlington, VA and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.