PROJECT

National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium.

Dubuque, Iowa

National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium

project details.

Client

National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium

Location

Dubuque, Iowa

Services

Engineering
Structural
Land Development
Traffic & Transportation
Field Services

project overview

Origin Design served on the design dream team to create the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium. The complex facility, led by Esherick Homsey Dodge and Davis of San Francisco, California, included the design of a variety of intricate exhibits and five integral concrete aquaria totaling 30,000 gallons.

Origin Design helped provide the design expertise on major exhibits ranging form a wetland re-creation, an authentic turning paddle wheel, a boatyard with a boat launch demonstration, as well as the dockside facilities for a historic river vessel.

In addition to the exhibit experiences, Origin Design worked behind the scenes on the site’s wells for a geothermal system that also serves as the freshwater source for the wetlands life support system.

Origin Design led the traffic and parking enhancements for this national attraction that celebrates the past, present and future of America’s waterways.

This complex museum structure consists of a concrete mat slab foundation; cast-in-place concrete beams with, precast hollow core plank, and heavy timber superstructure with masonry shear walls. The unique foundation system was based on excavating a basement and replacing the weight of the soil with the weight of the building.

Origin Design provided design survey as well as civil and structural engineering services for the primary facility. During construction, the Origin Design team provided the critical testing and inspection needed for this intricately unique project.

Follow our journey.

There's nothing we love more than having (almost) all our employee owners together! On Wednesday this week we spent the day learning about recent projects, our industry outlook and more at our annual employee meeting! Check out these photos from our day together!

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#workingontomorrow Check out this renovation project our architects completed recently for Ludovissy & Associates. Their space turned out great and we had a blast partnering with Lerdahl on this project!

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Our #employeeowners are feeling the spooky spirit. Check out these photos from our pumpkin decorating contest and ESOP Happy Hour last week!

Congrats to our winning team: Tasha Peacock, Laurie Wehrspann, Janet Urbain and Karen Weber! They designed the pumpkin Margarita glass!

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Not to be corny but we think our employee owners are a-maize-ing!

We love celebrating them every month but especially throughout October! This week we passed out Great American Popcorn Company popcorn to our employees to thank them for all they do!

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Happy 10th Anniversary, Eldon Schneider! We're so lucky to have you on our #origincrew! Join us in congratulating Eldon on reaching this milestone!

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We kicked off Employee Ownership Month last week with a company picnic at Flora Park in Dubuque, IA! We're extra thankful to be able to bring our employee owners and their families together during this busy season!#origindesign #ESOPmonth #creatingabettertomorrow

Stop by our booth at the ICCS Annual Conference this Wednesday & Thursday to learn more about what Origin Design can do for you!

We hope to see you there!

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Hey College Students!

It's that time of year again & we're stopping by a campus near you soon! Check out where we'll be headed this fall and make sure to stop by our booth at the career fairs to learn more about what Origin has to offer!

While you're at it, check out our website to learn more about our internship opportunities!

https://origindesign.com/careers

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Jeff Winter is celebrating 40 years at Origin Design! We're so lucky to have you on our #origincrew! Join us in celebrating this incredible accomplishment! Congrats, Jeff!

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This week our summer interns wrapped up their respective internships! We were so lucky to have all of them with us this summer. Take a glimpse into what they've been up to over the past few months!

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#workingontomorrow Check out the progress being made on the 6th Avenue and Northridge Road Improvement project in DeWitt, Iowa. This reconstruction project is set to be completed in October and included major improvements to public utilities along the roadway. Origin provided Land Survey, Engineering and Field Services for the project.

#origindesign #landsurvey #fieldservices #engineering #municipal

We're stopping by the ISAC Annual Conference this week! Stop by Booth 28 at the ISAC Annual Conference tomorrow & Thursday to chat with Julie Neebel and Courtney Wand to learn more about Origin Design.

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