Supporters of the Haines Sheldon Museum are considering a facelift for the front of the building, an extension of an effort to add an elevator and bring the facility into compliance with federal disability law.
“The feeling of the board was, ‘As long as we have to raise money, let’s raise money for an option we’re really going to be happy with,’” museum director Helen Alten said this week.
At its February board meeting, board members generally liked a design that would include an atrium-style entrance on its northwest corner and a public-programming space on the northeast corner.
The building would expand toward Main Street, increasing its usable space by one-third or more. A rough cost estimate is $5.7 million.
“The architect’s feeling is that it opens us up. It makes us look alive. People will see that we’re open and we have activities going on,” Alten told the board.
Board chair Jim Shook hailed the design as an improvement on the existing building, which has an entrance sheltered from view. “This will suck a lot of people in through the door and that will make a big chunk of our operating costs,” Shook said.
Members also liked the programming space that Alten said could be used by summer camps and for event rentals, presentations and receptions currently held in the main exhibit area. Some members, though, questioned potential for rental revenues, given the availability of other venues like the Chilkat Center and Harriett Hall.
Central to the plans is an elevator that would service the five-level structure. A leaky roof and lack of space for items like exhibit cases are among issues at the museum that was built in 1980, but access is the biggest problem, Alten said.
A person in a wheelchair must leave the building to move between its two main floors, restrooms don’t meet disability law, and the building’s lack of a double-door means exhibit crates must be unloaded outside, bringing in exhibits individually.
“We’re kind of a lawsuit that’s waiting to happen,” Alten said. Moving all the museum exhibits to a single floor – already under way with construction of downstairs archives – is only a first step toward meeting requirements of federal law, she said.
“It will be better this year with the exhibits all on the same floor, but the bathrooms are still on a different floor,” Alten said.
Under the redesign, the entrance, including the elevator, gift shop, new restrooms and public programming space – would be at the same level as the existing entrance. An option to expand the building’s basement would create more working areas and could eliminate use of a separate heated shed on the museum grounds now used for storage.
Alten and Shook emphasized the building redesign is still at a conceptual level. “It’s going to take us a while to get our ducks in a row. This is only the beginning,” Alten said.
Paul Voelckers of Juneau’s MRV Architects, who made the set of drawings, said he would likely attend a museum board meeting next week to answer questions.
Alten said money for plans could come from the Rasmuson Foundation, while a bill in the Alaska Legislature would more equitably fund museum construction, increasing the museum’s eligibility for state funding.
MRV’s drawings, she said, are “to help us start talking to people. It helps us say, ‘Look, this is a vision.’ This is a very difficult building and MRV had a hard time figuring out how to work with it. It’s basically a split-level house,” Alten said.
Interim borough manager Brad Ryan, who attended the February board meeting, said the project could go on the borough’s Capital Improvement Project list. “I’d be a little gun-shy of going to the assembly (for money) right now. They’re not looking to invest a ton of money in expanding facilities. They’re trying to downsize and shore up what we have.”