Homer Alaska - News

Add on and remodel or build from scratch?

Those are options faced by many homeowners and businesses looking to expand their space. It's a little different, however, when you're talking about one of Homer's oldest, continually occupied public buildings. For the Pratt Museum, those are questions the staff and board of directors have asked the public to help answer.

In two meetings held 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday and 5:30-7:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Pratt invites people to come and discuss options in the museum's current plan to expand its 43-year-old facility. Should the existing building be renovated and expanded or should a new structure be built?

"The staff has been thinking about this. The board and Patrons of the Pratt have been thinking about this," said Pratt Museum director Diane Converse. "We need to get the community input as well."

Since 2002, the Pratt has been considering how to expand its facility and develop its 10-acre site — and pay for it. Under a grant from the Rasmuson Foundation, architects with ECI/Hyer — the same architectural firm that designed the new Homer Public Library — have advised the Pratt development team on some preliminary design options. The Pratt also has received grants from the Paul Allen Foundation to develop a museum expansion capital campaign, a Museums for America grant for exhibit planning and a National Endowment for the Humanities $750,000 challenge grant for the building fund. The museum will use a $50,000 Alaska Department of Natural Resources grant to improve its forest trails this summer.

Originally the Pratt had set a $12 million budget to include site changes along with expanding the museum. Because of the economic downturn, and after the development team did a fundraising feasibility study, it set a more realistic goal of raising $8.5 million. That $8.5 million could fund either of two options:

* Expand the current 10,500-square-foot building to about 13,000-square-feet and renovate the old structure. That would include adding an elevator and other features to make the museum fully compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

* Build a new, single-level structure that is about 11,500-square-feet and would be ADA compliant. A new building could go on several proposed sites, such as south of the current building on part of what's now parking. Part of the foundation of the old building could be used for a proposed boathouse for the museum's collection of historic boats, including the F/V Normandie. The boathouse is in the $8.5 million budget and is part of either option.

The Pratt also plans to expose Woodard Creek, now running under the parking lot through a culvert. Doing that presents some problems with the old building.

"One thing that is a little easier with a new building is we're not dealing with a foundation that's next to the creek," Converse said. "It has to be reinforced to deal with flooding."

Either option has pluses and minuses. A new building would be smaller, but because it's on one level would not have staircases that use up space. A new building would have a 50-year life, while renovation and addition would add 20 years to the 43 years of the old building.

A big issue is disruption to the museum during construction. Construction for a new building would take 15 months as opposed to 24 months for renovation.

"It would be quite a big project just to protect things," Converse said of renovating.

If the old building is torn down, the museum would try to salvage materials like roof beams and siding to be used in the boathouse or other structures.

"One of our values is to reuse what we can, but the building would come down. We cannot afford to maintain two buildings," Converse said.

Once a decision is made on how to proceed, the museum hopes to solicit requests-for-proposals from architects this summer.

People can comment either day, Converse said, and do not have to attend both meetings to present ideas. She said museum friends have already been making suggestions.

"The ideas are thick and fast with either option. Ideas are not a problem," Converse said. "There's other ideas I'm hoping that will come out of the meetings. I've heard other things, but I don't want to shut down ideas. That's what these meetings are about."

The meetings will be conducted similar to other Pratt community conversations, with people sitting in a semi-circle, and with a facilitator to keep discussion organized.

Converse is careful not to appear to be promoting one idea over another so she and the museum don't prejudice the discussion.

"I'm there to listen and see what the community has to think about the two options and which will serve us best for now and the future."

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong.@homernews.com.