“We are thrilled,” said Synergy Design Group CEO Mary Frances Turner of her company’s winning proposal for the Hamlet Depot project.
“Several of us (at Synergy) are from small towns,” said Turner, who is herself from a small fishing village in Florida that is currently being revitalized. “We got into the research and began to discover just what Hamlet was; then we came up and saw it and we all just fell in love.”
Synergy specializes in cultural and natural history museum exhibits and has done work for the Florida Museum of Natural History, the Nashville Zoo, the Atlanta History Center, the George Washington House in Barbados and many others.
“The railroad has such a romantic idealism associated with it,” said Turner. “We’ve never done a railroad museum before, and we really wanted to go out and stretch our wings.”
The city is looking to tell rail industry history with a local focus through exhibits in the Depot and the Lassiter building across the street. They have a $500,000 to do it with — 80 percent from federal enhancement funds, 10 percent from the city and another 10 percent from the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
According to Hamlet City Manager Marchell Adams David, Synergy was ultimately chosen from a pool of 37 proposals. That group had been narrowed down to nine, and three of those were called in for interviews. David said Synergy’s enthusiasm was obvious from their presentation.
They had ideas for interactive games and storyboards that they will be able to elaborate on and solidify after getting input from the community.
“I saw the degree of passion that I shared for this project come to life from their viewpoint,” said David, who added that Synergy designers made it a point to stop by local businesses and the library and talk to locals about what they would like to see in the project.
“We believe that museums should spark dialogue,” said Turner. “Our greatest achievement is getting people to talk about what they experience (at the museum), to explore it further in conversations and in their own minds. So much of that is going to be applied to what we design (in Hamlet).”
According to David, the city has set an ambitious goal of having the new exhibits up and ready in the Depot and the Lassiter building by some time in October. Synergy will be coming to Hamlet in June to conduct focus groups, get citizen input, do research and get the ball rolling on different levels of interactive exhibit designs. Nashville-based exhibit fabrication company 1220 will make the final product.
“Throughout the process, and after listening to the final three proposals, it was clear that Synergy had their stuff together,” said Hamlet Mayor Jeff Smart. “I think they can maintain the schedule set before them, and I am excited to see what they’re going to do.”
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