Willow Glen Resident

Cover Story

Photograph by Vicki Thompson

Hop On: Tech Museum president Peter Friess of Willow Glen is working on an upcoming exhibit, 'Green by Design.' The 1898 Baker electric car will be part of the exhibit to show that electric vehicles have been around for more than a century.

Friess' World

Tech president wants to partner with local companies

By Laura Rheinheimer

It's an exciting time for new Willow Glen resident Peter Friess. He moved to San Jose from Germany to take the reins at the Tech Museum of Innovation.

Friess, who started as the museum's president in April, has a number of ideas for making the place more innovative.

For starters, Friess wants to create a tighter bond between the 16-year-old Tech Museum and the Silicon Valley community. To accomplish this, plans are under way for a new exhibit, "Spirit of Silicon Valley," which Friess envisions as depicting the inner workings of the Valley, highlighting predominately local innovations.

He wants to partner with more companies in the fields of biotechnology, nanotechnology, robotics and alternative energy to change the direction of the Tech Museum to a more local focus. His goal is to "help the world understand why Silicon Valley has become one of the most creative spots on Earth."

Friess says, "The time is ripe to build a new type of museum, and Silicon Valley is the best place to do that."

Friess isn't a newcomer to the area. He worked for the German government trying to promote his country and encourage high-tech companies to invest and establish offices in Germany and Europe. He would spend two to three weeks a year in the United States and was a frequent visitor to Silicon Valley from 2001 through 2003.

These visits whetted his appetite for the Valley, along with his interest in melding art with technology, a passion that began during his college years.

The 47-year-old Friess was born and raised in Munich, Germany. His father was a watch- and clockmaker, an interest that young Friess picked up and carried into his career. He studied art history, philosophy and theology, and earned a Ph.D. in art history from the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich. His dissertation is on the relationship between the history of art and technology.

Friess advanced quickly in the museum world. He worked in prestigious museums in Germany, the United States and around the globe.

Among his top accomplishments, Friess designed the company museum for high-end jewelry maker Chopard in Geneva, Switzerland, and he started the Deutsches Museum in Bonn, Germany. Friess also designed an exhibit on 18th-century European clocks at the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Together Friess and his wife, Birgit Binner, who works as a museum designer, developed "Nobel Voices: Celebrating 100 Years of the Nobel Prize," currently on exhibit around the world at museums such as the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

For the exhibit, Friess chose to highlight the process of innovation, focusing on the Nobel laureates' lives, and how the landscape of innovation has changed over time.

It was Friess' attitude about innovation and his ability to translate high-tech jargon into layman's terms that placed him at the top of the candidate search when the board sought out a Tech Museum president to replace Peter Giles.

Ann Bowers Noyce, head of the search committee, said in a written statement, "Peter is a recognized leader in bringing new concepts and creative programs around the globe, which unite the education community, local community and high- tech businesses to engage visitors in unique and compelling ways."

Friess says he views an exhibition as a "diamond with many facets," but it is up to the exhibit designer to choose how it should be presented to public. Friess says he is fortunate to have a talented staff.

Friess knows he has as a tough crowd to please. He says people go to museums voluntarily, so the exhibits must draw them in. At the Tech Museum, there are gadgets, models, actors and displays, and people can touch and ask questions.

"The medium used all depends on the message you want to send," Friess adds.

The museum also houses an IMAX theater, which is a different movie experience. The domed screen creates a 3-D effect. Viewers have the sensation of being part of a movie scene. When a movie is chosen, sometimes an exhibit is designed around it. When Superman Returns came to the IMAX, the museum featured actors explaining the science behind the movie. It's all part of Friess' belief that different subjects require different media.

"You have to describe something in a way other people understand," Friess says. "You filter between the specialists and the non-specialists."

Beyond the Tech

A large part of Friess' job is talking to the "high society of science." As the Tech Museum's president, he focuses more on the museum's overall look and feel, leaving the detailed work of designing the exhibit, writing the content and choosing the display items to his staff.

"Running a place like this is like running an orchestra," Friess says.

This orchestration includes the annual Tech Awards.

The event started in 2000 and is given annually to five people from around the world who have made a key contribution. The 2006 Tech Awards ceremony will honor Bill Gates with the James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award. Gates will attend the November ceremony and be honored for his contributions in technology that have benefited humanity.

One of the museum's current exhibits, "Green by Design," has the future of humanity in mind. The exhibit features an electric car made in 1898 by inventor Walter Baker, as well as the Tesla Roadster, a high-performance electric car developed by Silicon Valley innovators.

"Green by Design" was chosen for its timeliness and is part of a new permanent Energy Gallery, which will evolve over time to keep up with emerging technologies, Friess says.

"We want everyone who visits the gallery to walk away with a better understanding of what they can do to contribute to conserving our world's finite resources," Friess adds.

The creation of the exhibit happened by chance.

Friess says he came upon the 1898 electric car when he visited Buck's Restaurant in Woodside, a place famous for high-power meetings between top executives. The owner of Bucks told him the town's mayor, Deborah Gordon, owned an old electric car made by her great-great uncle, Walter Baker. Gordon agreed to loan the museum the car for the exhibit.

"By talking to people, you get these wonderful stories," Friess says.

Like the discovery of new technology, there are many stories still to be told about Silicon Valley's technological past, present and future, and Friess wants to bring those stories into his galleries and teach and inspire his newly adopted community.

For more information about The Tech Museum of Innovation, visit www.the tech.org.