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Museum Opening Anticipated

Re-printed courtesy of The Grinnell Herald-Register • September 19, 2006

The Iowa Transportation Museum is pleased to announce it is now embarking on construction and design planning which will bring the facility to an opening of its first phase in a little over a year.

“We fully anticipate being open for business in late 2007,” says Executive Director John Swanson.

Swanson says funding is in place to finish rehabilitation of the Administration Building, the smallest one on the campus, located directly across from the city of Grinnell’s Public Safety Building at the corner of Fourth Ave. and Spring St. Plans call for it to be opened as a welcome center, which will house several core functions and seminal exhibits, in addition to providing meeting space.

Architects are currently working on drawings and final design development, and Swanson expects the project will be bid in late November or early December.

Plans call for the interior of the building to be “taken back to its 1906 original appearance, as much as possible,” Swanson says. Careful attention will be given to the ceilings, walls and lighting fixtures so that they will be close to the originals.

Swanson says the first floor will hold the initial exhibits, and that the second floor will be left as a “multipurpose function space” large enough to accommodate groups of 100, banquet-style, and up to 175, theater-style. There will be a small catering kitchen on the top floor. The basement of the building will be the initial staff offices, as well as space for the building’s mechanical works.

Plans show the Administration Building connected to the larger East Building, to its south, by a soaring three-story glass atrium which will serve as the main entrance to the museum. Swanson says the large clear open space can be used for display of large artifacts, such as airplanes suspended from the ceiling.

“It ought to be visible from Hwy. 146, and at night it’s going to be absolutely stunning,” Swanson says.

The north end of the East Building will be visually connected to the atrium by a cor-ten steel facade piece needed to help solve the architectural “problem” of connecting the two buildings of different heights. The steel wall will conceal the unequal roof lines, and house stairways necessary to meet building codes. The color of the steel will weather to a patina, blending with the warm brick of the existing buildings over time.

The northernmost 30 feet of the East Building will also be conceptually connected with the functions housed in the Administration Building. Plans call for a museum store , a small bistro and restrooms on the first floor, with additional exhibit space on the second floor.

“When we open, we will have approximately 8,000 square feet with the first floor of the Administration Building and the second floor of the East Building, and the atrium, available for exhibits and displays,” Swanson says.

Work on the buildings at the former Spaulding Buggy Works to date has involved re-roofing and other procedures focused on stabilizing the facilities. The next construction phase will involve removing both floors of the Administration Building and almost completely rebuilding its interior.

At the same time as it embarks on the construction push on Phase I, the ITM board has also sent out requests for proposals with the intent of retaining a design firm to start working on the displays themselves.

“During the next eight to 12 months, as we take care of construction, we will also be designing interiors with initial themes, concepts, displays and exhibits,” Swanson said.

With reconstruction work on an estimated year-long timetable, the display design will be on a similar schedule.

“That’s why we want to get a head start on exhibit programming,” Swanson added, “so when the building is ready to go, the exhibits would be ready to be installed.”

Once the first phase is completed, the museum can begin hosting displays and programming. As funding becomes available, Swanson says, the work will “expand to the south” to encompass other planned functions such as additional exhibition space and a restoration lab.

Swanson says work on private fundraising will be ongoing. The Chicago-based firm TerMolen, Watkins and Brandt has been engaged to assist the ITM with private capital and endowment campaigns.

Earlier this year, the ITM completed a strategic planning process funded by United States Department of Agriculture rural development dollars. A group of 40 citizens from across Iowa determined that the ITM would have an operating budget of approximately $1 annually and would need to attract a minimum of 30,000 visits per year to be sustainable.

Planning identified that visitors will not be greeted just by Iowa’s transportation stories, but also by information about the individuals, engineering, economics, and science which together have shaped – and continue to shape – transportation’s future. The facility will also have a vibrant outreach program designed to share ideas statewide.

The group determined that the mission statement of the facility is as follows: “Moving people, goods and ideas is essential to creating any vibrant culture. The Iowa Transportation Museum explores the evolution of transportation in Iowa, making it come alive to enhance our understanding of how transportation systems and workers contribute to the culture and quality of life we enjoy.”

The closely related “vision statement” reads: “The Iowa Transportation Museum will offer a dynamic, multi-faceted, collaborative, financially viable educational program in a unique historical facility. It will reach out from its base in Grinnell to serve students, families, researchers, collectors and others with an interest in transportation.”