Firm Profile
Since 1975, Livingston Slone has provided services in architecture, planning, and interior design. Their clients include not-for-profit organizations; local, state and federal government; corporations and individuals. Their project portfolio includes cultural, healthcare, educational, and community facilities, laboratories and scientific buildings, group housing, and social service facilities.
Livingston Slone’s designs are a close reflection of clients’ needs, providing owners with the most appropriate solution given time, budget, and mission. Livingston Slone actively and intentionally seeks projects that will have a lasting and meaningful impact on our community and state. www.livingstonslone.com
Bios
Tom Livingston, FAIA, Principal in Charge and Project Manager
Tom has worked on some of the most unique museum facilities, community/cultural centers, and other public facilities in Alaska, including 18 museum projects. He has worked with countless community groups, small municipalities and nonprofit organizations to bring their projects to successful fruition, and his portfolio contains over 300 projects. These projects include LSI’s entire museum portfolio and various “embedded” museum/display facilities in other projects. His Homer project experience includes the Kachemak Bay Visitor and Development Center and serving as design advisor to the Pratt Museum in 2002. He has provided services for many other Peninsula projects in Kenai, Kasilof, and Seward, most notably for the Alaska SeaLife Center, giving him extensive familiarity with saltwater aquaria. Other aquaria projects include the NOAA Lab in Juneau and the Ruth Burnett Sports Hatchery in Fairbanks. Tom is familiar with the Kachemak Bay region and is a frequent visitor. His family homesteaded in the Anchor Point area and many of his family reside in the Homer area.
Joe Abegg, AIA, LEED AP, Project Architect.
Joe has provided design expertise for numerous museums and community centers. Many of Joe’s projects have received design awards for their attention to arctic and sustainable design issues. A LEED Accredited Professional, Joe’s designs incorporate daylighting, views, and energy efficiency. His award-winning design of the YKHC Community Health Services Building in Bethel was featured as a case study in a national AIA/ASHRE/DOE publication on energy efficient design. Joe’s portfolio includes numerous relevant projects including the Alaska SeaLife Center, for which he designed education areas, animal habitat and rehabilitation areas, and wet and dry research labs for the original $33 million facility. The project was awarded an AIA Honor Award for Design Excellence. Other relevant projects include the North Slope Borough Cultural Center, Museum of the Aleutians, Yupik Cultural Center, Pratt Museum Expansion, NOAA Lab, Tongass Historical Museum, and Campbell Creek Science Center.
Philosophy
The father of interpretive planning in America is Freeman Tilden, author of Interpreting Our Heritage. In 1957, he defined interpretation as a way
“to reveal meanings and relationships…
rather than simply to communicate factual information.”
The team takes this definition to heart. For us, interpretation is the foundation of every exhibit. Successful interpretation captures the visitors’ imagination and curiosity; it makes connections between concepts and facts and the personal lives of visitors, and it conveys themes in engaging and unforgettable ways.
The Alchemy of Design
Our team has worked on projects covering cultural history, geology, paleontology, physical science, and the ways humans interact with and influence ecosystems. We have integrated big ideas into specific concepts in fun, interesting, and accessible ways. We also know how to build an effective exhibit team. We have worked congenially together in one form or another since 1989, and each member’s talents and experiences adds richness to the whole.
Alan Ransenberg
Creative Director/Exhibit Designer
Alan Ransenberg has more than 30 years of experience planning, designing, and implementing cultural history centers, natural history and natural science exhibits for the USFWS, BLM, NPS, and Forest Service, as well as regional museums and visitor centers. He is a wonderful listener, has honed his considerable skills in “thinking like a visitor.” He brings a wide-ranging imagination to the process of exhibit design and will be the project lead.
Robbie Maki
Lead Project Manager/Senior Graphic Designer
Robbie Maki has 20 years of varied project management and graphic design experience, with half of that time spent as a project manager. She has created visual solutions and managed projects for a wide variety of clients, including visitor centers, zoos, science centers, and private museums. Her primary role as studio project manager involves coordinating team members, schedules, clients’ response times and deliverables. She is key to making all our projects stay on task and install on time.
Alice Parman
Interpretive Planner/Writer
Alice’s work focuses primarily on interpretive planning, including visioning, interpretive plans, and exhibit development. In her 16-year museum career, Alice served as chairperson of the education department at the Field Museum in Chicago, director of the University of Oregon Museum of Natural History, and director of Willamette Science and Technology Center in Eugene, Oregon. In 1989 Alice began a new career as an exhibit planner and writer for an exhibit design firm with a national clientele.