The Johnson GEO Centre is a widely acclaimed new geological museum featuring innovative architecture and interpretive programming that has led to very high attendance levels and visitor satisfaction. For this project, AtlantexCreativeWorks, working with associates, was responsible for the planning, development, writing, design and implementation of the 12,000 square foot exhibit hall, as well as the design and production of the concourse solar system exhibit.
The GEO Centre is particularly innovative and popular with visitors because of its commitment to telling the geological story of Newfoundland and Labrador in ways that are technically accurate yet understandable to the visitor. Much use is made of video-based presentations, one in a large multi- media introductory theatre, and others in small environmental theatres where the visitor enters into surroundings that are related to the principal message. In addition, an early interpretive commitment to encouraging visitors to touch, and physically participate wherever possible, was fully achieved through the use of a custom designed and fabricated exhibit structural system. In comparison with many geological museum exhibits, the GEO Centre presents rock specimens where their presentation, lighting and explanation, suggests inherent value and importance.