To maximize opportunities presented while planning for a new museum building and site improvements, multiple efforts are underway for various areas of operations. These operations areas include membership, communications, exhibits and education programs. Your input on an online survey will help maximize the quality of each Pratt’s visitor’s experiences. This input will help ensure that the new facility and its programming meet current and future needs of audiences, in a financially sustainable way, for many years to come. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your thoughts with us.

Woodard Creek Restoration Project

The Pratt Museum has planned rehabilitation of Woodard Creek as an important part of its long-term site vision. Initial discussion of “daylighting” the creek began in 2007, and a concept plan of the museum grounds showing the creek removed from the existing culvert was circulated to the public in 2008. The development of a final design will be completed in cooperation with city planners, appropriate local and national regulatory agencies, and our architecture team. The community will have an opportunity for input on the draft design. Our intent is to develop a project that is both ecologically sound and responsive to the civic concerns of the city and other downstream property owners. Homer-based geophysicist Geoff Coble is the lead contractor on the project. We have just received notification on the success of our CIAP (Coastal Impact Assistance Program) grant intended to fund project planning and design. Work will proceed on the design and engineering for this project over the next couple of years.

Approximately 500 feet of Woodard Creek flows across the Pratt Museum’s property. During the construction of the current building, about 120 feet of the creek was diverted through a culvert to allow for the construction of the existing paved parking lot of the Museum. In addition, runoff from the museum roof and much of the paved parking was designed to discharge directly into the creek. As a project connected to the larger capital project for a new building, the Museum would like to remove this culvert, convert the asphalt area adjacent to the creek to pedestrian and garden space, and rebuild the creek bed and floodplain. A major goal of the creek rehabilitation will be to restore much of the lost wetland functions, including improving infiltration, restoring floodplain area, creating stream bank habitat, and reducing flow velocity at both low and high stages.

During the week of September 24, activity on the Pratt grounds will include soil testing for the capital building project as well as boring wells for the creek project. There will be some noise and disruption during the clearing and drilling activities.

As we near the end of the schematic design phase, we wish to express our appreciation to everyone who has contributed ideas and comments along the way.

The following drawings show the exterior, floor plan, and elevations of the new building. The site plans show Phase 1 with the new building in place; Phase 2 is the long-range concept for the site, once the Woodard Creek restoration project is complete.

We are very excited about the building design. Some of the new features include:

• Dedicated space for education programs and community gatherings, both indoors and out
• Expanded gallery space with new and updated exhibits, along with additional
  space for rotating exhibits.
• Expanded collections storage with state of the art temperature and humidity controls. Space for research, collections conservation, and exhibit preparation
• Additional restrooms, including a family restroom
• Full compliance with the Americans with Disability Act
• Increased building system efficiency for long-term energy efficiency
• A building designed for flexibility and anticipation of future growth

Capital Project Update, April 2012
Pratt Museum held a Design Workshop for community input on March 29. Staff and community members along with the architects discussed the latest drafts of the exterior appearance, schematic design of the new building’s interior and site plan layout of the museum’s 9.3 acre urban green space. The design of the supports on the front entry and over the deck was inspired by the rigging on commercial fishing boats. The drawings are posted here and will also be in the Pratt’s lobby the week of the 9th. Please feel welcome to send us your comments to capitalproject@prattmuseum.org. We are collecting input on this stage of design through the first week in May.

 

At the January design workshop staff and community members saw a refined adjacency diagram of the interior museum space as well as a first look at a preliminary sketch of what the exterior might look like. The front view of the exterior includes a large wall to the right which may be a great spot for an art piece. After looking over these drawings, send us your comments. 

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The Pratt Museum held a design workshop on Monday, November 14. At this workshop, staff, board members, and community members provided input on the building and site layout to two architects from the Pratt’s contracted firm, Livingston Slone. A three-dimensional model of the Pratt’s 9.3-acre property and moveable foam core blocks of major spaces or structures were used to explore several layout options and consider issues such as work area and gallery adjacencies, shipping/receiving needs, exhibit installations, humidity and temperature control, sight lines, flow, outdoor event spaces, parking, and access. The architects will use input from these workshops to develop the new building and updated site concepts.

Draft concepts of the ideas developed at the workshop will be available for comment and further community input in a few weeks. The next design workshop with the architects is scheduled for mid-January; the specific date and time for the community meeting will be posted on the Pratt’s web site calendar, local media, and in the monthly electronic newsletter as soon as they are established. The Pratt’s staff and Board of Directors would like all interested community members to be heard during this process.