Raids, Romance and Writings

Fairfax Museum and Visitor Center

The City of Fairfax Museum and Visitors Center occupies a unique Arts and Crafts style schoolhouse built in the early 20th century. While undergoing adaptive reuse, the City of Fairfax asked RWD to provide a master plan to redesign the visitor center and exhibit galleries. With a 60-inch interactive plasma screen and computer work areas designed by RWD, visitors can now view historic sites in panoramic format and easily organize their travels in and around Fairfax.

RWD designed the retail area and a variety of exhibit cases, mounts, and a platform system for the City's main exhibit galleries. Riggs Ward also designed and produced all of the exhibit graphics and provided a type identity for the inaugural exhibit, Raids, Romance and Writings. In a second project, RWD created a permanent exhibit gallery on the second floor of the museum, which showcases the history of Fairfax. Housing Suburbia depicts post-war subdivision design and the influx of residents to the Washington, D.C. area.