The Craft Demonstration Area is visible from nearly all the public areas of the complex and creates a strong lure
whether you are on the street, inside the Heritage Building or Discovery Lab, or even on the waterfront Outdoor Commons.
Entering from the street side, you feel welcome to walk leisurely along a full-length exhibit counter showcasing tools of the trade. The tasks of sailmaking, leather and rope work, and traditional hand-tooled small-craft boatbuilding happening before you are a feast for the senses and honor the skills and crafts of traditional maritime arts. You can easily observe and converse with the working craftspeople.
The Discovery Lab, a learning laboratory for the Wooden Boat Foundation’s educational programs, engages students in hands-on activities. You’ll discover the world of nautical science and the history of a traditional working waterfront. Students will be engaged in boat projects, lectures, rigging exercises, experiential labs and seminars that teach concepts about the relationship of land to sea. All of this can be observed from the
Mezzanine
walkway.
The pungent smell of sawdust is the essence of the Wood Shop.
Directly servicing the Discovery Lab, this area has been designed with large doors to the north and south so that long sections of wood can be milled.
Located on the second level of the Discovery Lab, well-lit rooms with high ceilings provide flexible space for small meetings that may break off from the conference area, or for classes that serve ongoing Center programs. Large, vertically sliding doors create up to three separate rooms, while another closes off the space from the Mezzanine. The rooms enjoy outside views and access from balconies overhanging the street side of the building.
The Mezzanine borders the Classrooms and runs the full length of the building. It offers easy access to the Maritime Heritage Building and provides vantage points overlooking activities occurring below, in the Discovery Lab and in the Craft Demonstration Area. Pivoting davits located along the edge of the Mezzanine can hoist small boats and materials up from the shop floor and swing them into the classrooms for hands-on learning.
At the top of the Maritime Education Building’s east-end tower, in a glassed-in space resembling a modern pilothouse, school groups and visitors will have a sweeping view of the inlet connecting the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Puget Sound. From the Pilothouse, students will be able to test out traditional and modern navigational tools and techniques while tracking the vessel traffic on Admiralty Inlet.
Approximately 8,000 commercial vessels pass by the Center’s site each year, making it one of the most heavily trafficked shipping lanes in the nation. The Pilothouse is designed to be interpreted by industry professionals, with a goal of helping visitors understand what life is like aboard the ships passing by.
The Pilothouse will be networked to a classroom one floor below, where instructors will teach principles of nautical science such as vector plotting, meteorology, piloting and oceanography in a hands-on setting. Educational programs will also promote awareness of coastal and marine ecology issues facing Puget Sound.
lure
whether you are on the street, inside the Heritage Building or Discovery Lab, or even on the waterfront Outdoor Commons. 
