Museum renovation aims for harmony with nature, neighborhood 

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The city of Springfield is making big changes, according to Springfield Art Museum director Nick Nelson, and the museum is positioned to lead the way. 

“A number of big ideas for transformational projects are taking place or on the horizon for our community,” he said. “In a lot of ways, this project is leading those efforts. We’re one of the first ones out of the gate, and it’s really important as a community that we make sure it’s a success.” 

Nelson was referring to the museum’s nearly $50 million renovation and expansion project. The first of two phases of the project is scheduled to go out for bid in August with work beginning by January 2025. 

Nelson credited Springfield’s Forward SGF comprehensive plan as spurring the big moves in the city, among them the daylighting of Jordan Creek – a project that will restore a buried creek to the surface while positioning it within park amenities downtown – and a plan to create natural and cultural amenities in the area surrounding Lake Springfield. 

‘Porous’ 
A few words come up in conversation with Nelson when he talks about the museum project. Bold. Visionary. But … porous?  

“That’s Nick’s word,” said Sarah Buhr, the museum’s curator of art. “Right now, the building feels very fortress-like. You see ‘Sun Target,’ but you don’t know what the building is about. You just see a wall.” 

“Sun Target” is better known to most Springfieldians as the french fries – the large-scale yellow sculpture located outside the museum on its east side, along National Avenue. 

That side of the building will have a beacon-like window that will be able to display digital art to cars passing by on National Avenue. 

Glimpses of the artwork inside a building that is now nearly windowless is one way the building will be made porous. Buhr said the renovated museum will also have more connection with the outdoors, including a restored Fassnight Creek and, on its west side, Phelps Grove Park. 

Importantly, potential visitors will recognize the building’s purpose at a glance. 

“If people drive by, it will look like an art museum,” she said. “They might see a mural, making it more apparent what we are and what we do. We want it to feel like it’s a place you can come to.” 

That’s also a priority for Josh Harrold, a principal with Kansas City-based architectural firm BNIM, and a Springfield native. 

Harrold said Phelps Grove Park was designed by an important landscape architect: George Kessler, designer of St. Louis’ Forest Park. The museum’s design attempts to pull the park in through the museum, Harrold said. 

Where Nelson strives for a porous museum, Harrold chooses an unusual verb: extroverting. 

“Extroverting the museum is important – making it approachable for the community,” he said. “Right now, it’s very introverted.” 

The museum was built in stages, Harrold noted. The original building, now the education wing, was constructed in 1957. The auditorium came about in the 1970s, with the east wing added in the 1980s and the west wing in the 2000s. 

“For us, it’s really important to unify all that within the master plan,” Harrold said. “We want to create a cohesive vision that brings the park and nature through.” 

He said one goal of the project is to make it something the business community can celebrate, as the quality of place the museum represents is a factor in workforce attraction. 

“Many other cities leverage their cultural amenities to attract talent,” he said. “We think that same opportunity exists here for Springfield.” 

Transformation 
While work is slated to begin by January 2025, the museum’s board of directors and Springfield City Council have chosen a measured approach, with $26 million in improvements on tap and the other $24 million to occur when funds are available. 

Some people think of museums as only entertainment venues, and Nelson wants visitors to have an enjoyable experience, but he must keep his eye on other parts of the mission. 

One of these is preservation. He noted the original 1957 building is architecturally intriguing, harmonizing with the midcentury homes in the neighborhood, but it’s archivally problematic. 

Nelson said all of the glass is single-paned and the walls are single-wide concrete masonry unit block. The building is not designed to meet seismic standards, but on a more basic level, it lets the heat, the cold and the moisture in from outside. 

That’s important when art inside the building dates from the 18th century and before. Maintaining a steady temperature and humidity level is crucial – otherwise, the materials used in the artwork can begin to break down. 

The approach being taken by the museum will not replace the building’s envelope – not in phase one, that is. However, the building’s mechanical systems will be upgraded to give them a longer life while maintaining the conditions the museum requires. 

Access 
Nelson said improved accessibility is another important part of the plan. When the building is fully renovated, it will have Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant restrooms and larger family restrooms with adult-sized changing tables, as well as a lactation suite. There will be a sensory room for people with autism or developmental disabilities.  

“Things like that are not on the top of mind of a lot of people, but it makes our facility welcoming and useful to everybody in the community,” he said.  

Buhr said she prizes another aspect of the museum’s mission: its educational role. She gets most animated when she talks about the study room that is planned in the updated facility. 

“That’s not something we’ve had before,” she said. 

Harrold said he is most excited by a plan to replace the museum’s current auditorium with a new kind of gallery space – one with high ceilings to accommodate large-scale work. 

“I don’t think the museum is being fully leveraged,” he said. “I don’t think the architecture of the museum aligns to the beautiful things Nick and Sarah do. The way Sarah displays art, I think her museum is holding her back. I’m super excited for her and Nick to have a museum that allows them to be the most that they can be.” 

Buhr noted she has had to pass up traveling shows that the museum building can’t accommodate because of the limitations of its gallery space. She recalled a 2019 show, “Ubuhle Women: Beadwork and the Art of Independence,” that included a piece that was taller than the museum’s walls. 

“We had to get special accommodations to split it up,” she said. “We couldn’t show it the way it was intended to be shown.” 

Nelson said giving up the auditorium is the right decision for the museum, in part because it is not accessible by current standards and would be pricey to fix. 

The city has other auditoriums, but the new gallery will be unlike any other gallery space in the region, Nelson said. 

“If you look across southern Missouri, there is no art space with ceilings that high – no gallery space with 20-plus-foot ceilings,” he said. “You’d have to go to Bentonville (Arkansas) or Tulsa (Oklahoma) for that. We’ll be adding something unique, and it will expand what we’re able to do.”