Features

Mille Lacs trading post

 

Custom store fixtures
combine display with
storage

Flexible space design
allows reconfiguration
as needs change

The Minnesota Historical Society's renovation of the Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post involved creating a museum shop compatible with the Trading Post's 1930's roots. Close Associates was asked to design the store interior and fixtures for the Indian-made crafts and jewelry. The site is designed to tell the story of Trading Post life. The shop's space maximizes sight lines and flexibility in arrangement of fixtures so that its limited staff can operate the shop effectively. Fixtures were carefully designed to provide display and storage spaces and to enhance the feeling of the original cluttered, undesigned, “Ma and Pa” store. In order to view the interaction of selected fixture finishes, computerized color studies of the space were generated to model historically accurate dark walls, white window trim, and natural wood floors and rafters.