Cade Museum Featured in Case Study

12 June 2019
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Photo courtesy of Oelrich Construction

The $9M, 25,000 SF Cade Museum for Creativity & Invention located in Gainesville, Florida was recently featured in a case study on Building Design + Construction Magazine’s website.

The case study highlights the creative architecture and design of the building being perfect for a museum dedicated to creativity and entrepreneurship. The building boasts a cylindrical architectural core and arcs, while the exterior, decorated with corrugated metal cladding, shines.

The museum’s center features a main hall which symbolizes the collaboration of ideas based on creativity, science, and nature. The intricate atrium resembles the anatomy of an eye with a skylight pupil in the center surrounded by an iris of texturized metals and panels that overlap within the vortex shaped space. Connecting galleries spiral around the main hall. This project required innovation from all contributing team members.

Namesake Dr. James Robert Cade is best known for inventing Gatorade, the first shock-dissipating football helmet, and for developing a high-protein milkshake used by athletes and cancer patients. In 2004, Cade and his wife established a foundation to fund the construction of the museum and a permeant allowance to cover a portion of the building’s ongoing operations.

The museum features a permeant exhibit on the science behind the Gatorade beverage, as well as neuroscience and entrepreneurship exhibit halls. The museum’s interactive exhibits foster creativity in individuals and are meant to inspire the minds of future inventors as well as early entrepreneurs. 

The Cade Museum also includes workshops designed to provide an immersive learning experience. Other spaces include a fabrication lab, a creativity lab, classrooms, an outdoor educational terrace, and a sculpture garden. The already prominent museum will expand by 24,000 SF as part of the phase two expansion.

Upon the project’s completion, the building was awarded Best Small Project, and ultimately Best Project overall in the Southeast region by Engineering News Record (ENR) as part of the Best Projects awards competition.

Henry Adams provided the MEP engineering design for the award-winning museum, making sure to provide the MEP engineering design consistent with the museum’s purpose to foster creation. To learn more about Henry Adams’ involvement with this project, visit our project sheet.