Wellesley College (Wellesley, MA) built a new museum building in the
last 3 or 4 years.It is beautiful and I know that the director and the
committee working on it did extensive research on other museums for ideas
on technology, conservation, best practices, etc.  By now they may know
whether or not all these turned out to be the right choices. I attended
a talk by the director and she had a very interesting slide presentation
about the process of research & design and how & why they made the decisions
they made. If you can persuade yourselves that a research trip to other
museums is necessary as part of your assessment, I would encourage you to
visit Wellesley and also Dartmouth. They have a new building which is not
that new anymore (10 years?) but is also very beautiful and seems to be
effective for both students and wider use by tourists, community and the
university.
Mary Day Kent, International Classroom, University of Pennsylvania Museum





>As a University art museum bursting at the seams, we are in the early stages
>of determining our needs and wish list for a new building addition to our
>1930's structure.  We will also assess our current building envelope and
>environmental systems to plan for upgrades and future museum use of the
>original building.   In the addition, we plan to include primarily
exhibition and
>storage space, and possibly a public space (i.e. parties, gatherings, lectures,
>performances...).
>
>We would be interested to hear from art museum people, in particular, who
>have gone through the process of expansion or building a new museum.   In
>general, it would be helpful to hear any tips, advice, or trials and
tribulations
>you experienced during the planning stages which brought success or
>problems during the building and occupation stages.
>
>Also, if you are aware of particular museum expansions that may worth
>looking at, please list those too.
>
>Though this may be of interest to the list, you may also respond off-list and I
>could summarize for the list.
>
>Thanks for your help!
>
>
>Jean Lancaster Collier
>Bayly Art Museum of the University of Virginia
>http://www.virginia.edu/~bayly/bayly.html
>
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>804-924-3592  (Fax  804-924-6321)
>
>