If you find wonder and excitement in the details of essential building components, continue for this brief exploration into the world of The Museum of Flight facilities. You may ask yourself, what is behind that closed door? Today, let’s open them and show you the remarkably unremarkable spaces of The Museum of Flight.
The Personal Courage Wing is full of exciting features! A hidden costume closet for our living history volunteers, a kitchen in the basement, not to mention a mysterious scissor stairway (also known as an interlocking stair) that can be seen but not accessed. I might say this building looks like a mini, Pacific Northwest-version of the skyscraper at 33 Thomas Street in New York—formerly called the AT&T Long Lines Building.
If you look at the Personal Courage Wing from outside, you will notice a window-like feature on our window-less building. The space behind that “window” is not a gallery but our building’s mechanical rooftop. The architect devised the parapet to keep the gallery’s bunker-like shape all while conforming to the strict height restrictions that come from building near an airport. You may have guessed this by now, but one of those interlocking staircases leads to the roof.
The three-million-cubic-foot Great Gallery has lots of secret spaces. Storage areas are tucked behind classroom walls, long hallways stretch from the south end of the building all the way across to the Personal Courage Wing basement, and of course there’s a secret tunnel system.
Most of these spaces are unremarkable. The tunnels are home to large ducts that carry clean and conditioned air throughout the building. Instead of showing you our dark and dusty passageways, I invite you to look up at the brightly-lit ceiling. Hidden in plain sight amongst the grid of steel beams and dangling aircraft is a catwalk that lines the perimeter of our six-story gallery and provides access to mechanical and lighting equipment. If you’re lucky, you might see a Facilities staff member walking around up there one day.
For our final stop, let’s visit the open-air Aviation Pavilion. It feels impossible to have any secret spots out here, but we do. Our last hidden space is what we lovingly refer to as the crow’s nest, a name taken from the maritime term used to describe the small observation decks that towered over a ship.
Our crow’s nests are not exactly observation decks, but they do tower over the space, and the crows love to hang out up there. They house electrical equipment that helps keep the lights on. The only way to access them is to climb to the top, but first you need the crows’ permission to pass through their air space.
Images: Madeline Neubauer / The Museum of Flight