>If you had to design a 1500 square foot museum space for a small
>historical society, what elements would be at the top of your list?
>Storage, exhibit space, gift area, work space, rest room and snack
>prep area? Are there percentages for each area which are
>recommended? Are there guidelines published for reference?
>Any help would be appreciated.
Susan--
There really aren't any guidelines or rules of thumb about the
proportion of different elements of a museum. It really depends on
the kinds of programs you have or will have, how many people you will
be serving, and the opportunities presented by the new location.
You might begin by asking yourselves some question about your future.
Do you see yourselves primarily as a repository for documents and
artifacts? Or as a research center for local historians? Or as a
place where local people will come to learn about local history? Or
as a place that serves school groups on field trips or with outreach
activities. You probably want to do some of all of these things (and
many other things), but in order to allocate space in your building,
you need to begin by understanding and evaluating the many possible
uses. Once you have your list, you can rank them in order of
importance and begin to look at how much space will be needed for
each activity.
With this list of what is most important, you can begin dividing up
the space. If your collections are most critical, you might
determine that you need a minimum of 500 square feet of storage area
and 200 square feet of work area/processing space. That leaves 800
square feet to divide among the less important uses. Of course,
different priorities will dictate different allocations.
Architects help people do just this kind of planning all the time--it
is called facility programming and is the first step in any building
project. I am sure you can find a local architect who can help,
perhaps even pro bono.
I would also second Wesley's comments about stealing from other areas
to add public space. It is tempting to see your exhibit areas as
most important, but you can always do more outreach programs (like
having an exhibit at the library or town hall), it is much more
difficult to find additional back of house space.
Good luck,
Guy
------------------------------
Guy Hermann
Senior Museum Planner
E. Verner Johnson and Associates
Museum Architects and Planners
http://www.museumarchitects.com
222 Berkeley Street
Boston, MA 02116
v: 617.437.6262
f: 617.437.1272
---------------------------------
Guy Hermann
Museum Planner
E. Verner Johnson & Associates
Museum Architects & Planners
222 Berkeley Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02116
http://www.vernerjohnson.com
v: 617-437-6262
f: 617-437-1272
c: 860-857-7363
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