ANDREW MERRIELL

Andrew Merriell offers interpretive planning and design consulting services for museum, visitor center, zoo, and public garden projects. He strives to create experiences that allow audiences to participate actively in deriving meaning that is relevant to their lives.

Andy has been innovating with visitor experience design since he started in 1973 with the Boston Children’s Museum, a pioneer in interactive and immersive installations. He is a veteran of over 100 interpretive planning and design projects, half of which he spearheaded with his own firm, Andrew Merriell + Associates.

Andy has now left that band and returned to the stage as a solo act offering his special talent and experience to architects and designers wishing to add strength to their project teams. He also accepts commissions as an independent contractor for consultations, master plans, concept studies, and exhibit design.

Andy holds a Master’s Degree in Architecture and a Bachelor’s in Art and Design, both from MIT.

WHAT I DO

I plan and design interpretive experiences for visitors to museums, visitor centers, zoos, and public gardens. I find innovative ways to immerse visitors in exhibit stories. Each project provides visitors with memorable, meaningful experiences they can find nowhere else. I strive to create experiences that allow audiences to actively participate in deriving meaning from exhibits that is relevant to their lives. My working style is to partner with the clients’ staff and stakeholders to produce exhibitions to which everyone has contributed ideas and in which everyone can claim ownership.

Services include:
consultations, interpretive master plans, concept studies, exhibition development, and exhibit design.

HOW I WORK

All great experiences provide a mix of enrichment, wonder, social interaction, recreation, and enchantment. They also grow from a compelling story. My job is first to root out the essence of the story, then to build a multifaceted experience with that story at its heart.

Over the years I have carefully developed a collaborative, workshop-based process that permits all stakeholders to share in the creation of the exhibit. The process is flexible and adaptable, yet moves steadily forward from the big ideas to the nuts and bolts.