Twice in my museum career I have been involved in moving into a new museum
facility and I have also been involved in planning new museum facilities.
Here are a FEW thoughts to help you and others learn from the experience of
others:
1. PLAN FOR EXPANSION on your expansion. Expect that in 10 to 20 years down
the road, you WILL want to expand on whatever you are doing now. Some
architects will fight you in court if you want to make add-ons to "their"
building, so get them to "phantom plan" these add-ons during Phase 1.
2. MAINTAIN FLEXIBILITY - We installed $300,000 worth of cabinets, mobile
shelving, metal shelving, pallet racking etc. in the early 1990s in our 1989
administration/storage building and already have had to undergo some major
changes (e.g. to accommodate our city's archives and its art collection). We
are also reorganizing our storage area after numbering all the units. Unit
numbering will remain basically unchanged but items may move from shelf to
shelf. The inventory system is being implemented so that all future moves
will be tracked.
3. LEAKPROOF IS BETTER THAN PRETTY - Avoid the flat roof and pretty building
trap! Water is smarter than some architects it seems and besides, water
works 24 hours a day, everyday, trying to get in. In the museum world, a big
ugly leak proof building is better than a pretty but leaking building.
4. WATER PIPES & SEWAGE - Avoid water pipes, drain pipes etc. over any of
your storage area. The question is not if you will have leaks, but WHEN you
will have leaks. Ideally ANY water (don't forget the gardener's taps on the
exterior of the building) should be at one end of the building and not have
ANY artifact/art/archival storage underneath it. An exception could be
sprinklers. Don't forget guards on sprinkler heads in case staff bump them
while moving furniture etc.
5. BLUEPRINTS - When looking at blueprints, flick past the first few pages
that show lovely uncluttered rooms, and check out the electrical, plumbing
and heating pages to see the real clutter of ducts, outlets, wall switches,
fire extinguishers, emergency wall mounted lighting, thermostats, overhead
temperature/humidity control units etc. that prevent you from simply putting
shelves or file cabinets against a certain wall. We had a storage room
intended for tables and chairs from our meeting room that ended up having
ductwork both across the floor and at shoulder height which drastically
limited its usefulness.
Colin Macgregor Stevens
Curator
Burnaby Village Museum
City of Burnaby, British Columbia, CANADA
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Museum web site:
http://www.burnabyparksrec.org/villagemuseum/villagemuseum.html
The opinions expressed above are my own.
-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of Anne Marr
Sent: March 13, 2001 9:10 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Planning new facility
The New Brunswick Museum is in the very early stages of planning for a new
purpose-built collections facility. We would appreciate any advice or
suggestions from colleagues who have had experience in this sort of project
in the last 5-10 years. The Museum's collections are made up of Humanities,
Natural Sciences and Archives and Research Library. If anyone has ideas on
how we should proceed (or pitfalls we should avoid) I welcome any and all
responses.
Thanks in advance
Anne Marr
Registrar
New Brunswick Museum
[log in to unmask]
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