Art
Museum Expansion
Indianapolis Project a Work of Art
by Jeffrey Steele
When the Indianapolis Museum of Art was redesigned, trustees
decided the building should boast an eye-catching oval entryway
that would allow patrons to become oriented to and begin their
visits at the museum.
It would be a place where they could learn about the many
features of the museum, including its art and the Oldfields
nature park.
But a problem arose. The $73 million project had a guaranteed
maximum price delivered by Indianapolis-based F.A. Wilhelm,
the construction manager.
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"We had a budget number on the entry pavilion, and our
budget exceeded that number," said Jonathan Hess, executive
vice president with Indianapolis-based Browning Day Mullins
Dierdorf Architects.
To "get the dollars out," as Hess put it, the architects
worked closely with Milwaukee-based design-build contractor,
Mero Structures Inc., a specialist in large glass structures,
and other suppliers to re-engineer the oval glass entryway.
"A lot of that work has been done by Buddy Combs on our
staff, who's a researcher at heart and has been working with
the glass supplier to develop an insulated glass unit that
meets the museum criteria," Hess added.
The entryway is an insulated glass structure with a unique assembly,
he said.
Typically, the insulated glass units comprising the structure
would feature two layers of 3/8-in. glass on either side of
a 1/2-in. air space. The original design called for bracing
these standard insulated 10-ft.-tall units with stainless steel
brackets at the third points.
"We had a stiffener at 3 ft. and 6 ft. on the glass,"
Hess said. The designers decided instead to thicken the glass,
in the process eliminating the need for the stainless steel
stiffening brackets.
The redesigned oval will feature two layers of 3/8-in. glass
laminated together, a 1/2-in. air space and another 1/2-in.
layer of glass.
Adding Space to Museum
The renovation and expansion of the Indianapolis Museum of
Art started in fall 2001 and is slated for completion in spring
2005. The project will add 160,000 sq. ft. of space and renovate
another 90,000 sq. ft. in the museum campus, which dates to
the late 1960s.
An additional 90,912 sq. ft. of new underground parking will
also be included in the project.
Nancy Hasselbring, administrator of business operations for
the museum, said the expansion will add new gallery areas, fine
and casual dining space and a 500-person banquet hall. The expansion
will also deliver a 300 percent increase in education studios
for adult and children's art classes, which range from finger
painting to calligraphy.
"Almost every single area of the museum will be affected
by this expansion," she added.
Open During Construction
One of the primary challenges posed by the project has been
keeping the museum open while construction takes place. "We've
worked very, very closely with F.A. Wilhelm to help us with
those logistics." Hasselbring said.
"We formed internal teams to handle the logistics and safety
issues. Once we had distilled ideas and parameters, we took
them to Wilhelm and worked with them to define the construction
zone so our patrons would continue to have access."
Early in the project, F.A. Wilhelm worked on making that access
possible. The traditional entrance of the museum is on the east
side, but the entire east side of the museum had to be torn
away because the expansion goes from the existing museum to
the east.
Part of the temporary facility work involved creating a new
temporary entrance on the south side, where visitors enter through
the Hulman Pavilion, said Steve Ross, F.A. Wilhelm's contractor
manager.
The first phase of actual construction was demolition of the
existing main entrance and plaza. The new building will completely
replace the existing plant, located in the Krannert Pavilion,
the first building to be built on the site.
The new building will feature new chillers and boilers. "We're
basically resupplying the hot water and chilled water for the
new building, plus adding the load of the new structure,"
said Doug May, F.A. Wilhelm's project superintendent.
Renovation Causes Shifts
The renovation work will be primarily completed in 2004. "We've
got departments scattered all over the place in the existing
building," May said. "They were all permanently relocated
due to the renovation. The challenge was hopscotching people
around the area.
"We had to come up with a plan so we could move everyone
and every department in the building, and what we tried to do
was move everyone just once. We had to move one department,
then go and build that area, and then move people into that,
and then move another department, build that area and move people
into that."
The existing building's lowest floor is the service level. Above
that is the "fountain level," topped by three levels
for Exhibit Area 1, Exhibit Area 2 and Exhibit Area 3, respectively.
The fountain level formerly housed a parking structure. In the
renovated museum, it will be home to more than a dozen departments,
from security to exhibit design, library, photography and print
storage.
Parking Moves Underground
The elimination of the parking level necessitated the building
of the garage. The underground parking garage is a separate
structure, with one floor of parking and a roof 4 ft. below
ground.
The garage is constructed of reinforced concrete that won't
include post-tensioning.
May described the roof as "drop heads with a 15-in. slab.
The foundation walls didn't have to be shored."
In addition to the work on the buildings themselves, all perimeter
grounds will be newly landscaped. "We're trying to figure
out how we can get 10-in. new trees brought in right up to the
front of the building," May added.
Staff members at the museum will have been inconvenienced by
the more than 2 1/2 years of work by the time the job's done,
but they have had a voice in the undertaking.
"The museum chose to be very inclusive on this project
and deliberately sought input from board members and staff,"
Hasselbring said. "This created layers of complexity that
other construction projects most likely would not experience.
But it was at our choice, and we hope to have a much better
result because of it."
Useful Source
Find out about the Indianapolis Museum of Art by visiting
www.ima-art.org/ on
the Internet.
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