Wallace Design Collective

The Bob Dylan Center is dedicated to the study and appreciation of renowned American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and his cultural significance. The new Center houses the Bob Dylan archives acquired by the George Kaiser Family Foundation and the University of Tulsa. Comprised of more than 100,000-piece collection spanning the entire length of the iconic singer and songwriter’s career, the archive includes decades of never-before-seen manuscripts, notebooks and correspondence; films, videos, photographs and artwork; memorabilia and ephemera; personal documents and effects; unreleased studio and concert recordings; musical instruments and many other items. The Dylan memorabilia serves as the centerpiece of the Center, a three-story museum, recently opened in the Tulsa Arts District. The Smithsonian magazine listed the Bob Dylan Center as one of the most anticipated museum openings of 2022.

The Center’s mission serves to educate, motivate and inspire visitors to engage their own capacity as creators. While the center is anchored by a permanent exhibit on the life and work of Bob Dylan, it also offers additional exhibits, public programs, performances, lectures, and publications, through which it aims to foster a conversation about the role of creativity in all our lives.

Wallace Design Collective provided structural engineering services for the analysis and design of the interior renovation and artwork support for the new Bob Dylan Center. One of the cool things we did was to provide structural engineering direction regarding the support, anchorage, and gate frame sizes for a new interior entry gate design that was designed with input from Bob Dylan. The gate spans from floor to ceiling in that tall entry space (about 15 feet tall).

photos: ©Mel Willis Co.