Alaska State Library, Archives and Museum — Juneau, AK

The Alaska State Library, Archives, and Museum in Juneau, Alaska features 21,380 SF wood grille ceilings. They span heights upwards of 42 feet over the building’s lobby, library, and reading room.

The project features 3,282 individual wood grille panels made of solid Western Hemlock. The wood grille panels are all 1’ wide and in various lengths. Alaska SLAM also made use of 98 LF of square wood trim pieces.

The wood grille ceiling is a mosaic of triangular shapes all on pitched planes, forming a series of inverted hips and valleys. The entire ceiling assembly is raked from one end of the building to the other—about 42’ at one point, down to 16’ over the library.

“The ceiling is evocative of the rugged [area] landscapes,” said architect Steve Simpson of Hacker Architects (formerly THA Architecture), Portland, Oregon. “The contour flattens out near the perimeter clerestory windows, allowing direct views of the high mountain ridgelines.”

Alaska SLAM wood grille ceilings were the result of five years of planning, design, and fabrication by 9Wood.