The Stuhr Museum completed construction on a new collections storage facility approximately two years ago. It consists of 16,000 sq.ft. of climate controlled storage space, a conservation lab, a receiving/prep area and offices. The sole purpose of this building is collections care and storage and will not be used for any general visitor related activities. We have spent the past two years (almost my entire hitch here) moving into the facility and plan to be done within the next few months. I was not in on the planning process for the building, but here are a few suggestions:
1. Do not underestimate the size of your collections or the fact that you may want to continue collecting. Also, when factoring size, have a definite idea of the type and amount of storage furniture you will be using.
2. Think critically about passageways and entries into the storage space (for humans and forklifts).
3. Have a knowledgeable consultant work with you on selecting a climate control system. If your local HVAC installers/suppliers do not understand the needs of climate control in museum storage (or have never installed a museum system or are unfamiliar with the system you have chosen), look elsewhere.
Dealing with a new building has been an interesting and challenging experience. Moving into the building has been equally interesting and challenging. Good luck!!
>From: Edward Baker <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Museum discussion list <[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Re.: Planning new facility >Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2001 10:50:58 -0400 > >Doon Heritage Crossroads in Waterloo, Ontario has an "award winning" new (3 >years old) curatorial, conservation and storage facility. > >The curatorial/conservation/storage phase of AMERC (the American Maritime >Education and Research Center), a new facility at Mystic Seaport, is >nearing completion and should be ready for visitors in the fall. The next >two phases, the boat hall and the visitor use area are in the planning >stage. As a gauge of the size of the project, when the concrete was poured >for the floor of phase one, we determined that an acre of floor space was >being created. > >Edward > > >Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001 13:10:27 -0400 > >From: Anne Marr <[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] > > >Edward Baker >Assistant Director of Interpretation > >MYSTIC SEAPORT >The Museum of America and the Sea >75 Greenmanville Avenue >Mystic, CT 06355 USA > >860.572.0711 ext. 5080 >[log in to unmask] >http://www.mysticseaport.org >http://www.alhfam.org > >========================================================= >Important Subscriber Information: > >The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). > >If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).