Phase 2 work set to begin on Springfield Art Museum

Work to transform the Springfield Art Museum is transitioning to the second and final phase.

In a private tour of the building – currently a bare shell, with construction underway and the city’s 10,000 art pieces safely stored – Director Nick Nelson offered Springfield Business Journal a glimpse into how the building might serve the public when work is completed. New amenities include a gallery with a 20-foot ceiling, improved accommodations for guests and a main entrance that aims for a front-porch feel.

Momentum for the project was helped by a $30 million allocation approved by Springfield City Council in February to fund the second phase, with $15 million to be distributed in each of the next two fiscal years.

The expenditure was recommended by the Citizens’ Advisory Board, which advises council on the use of the half-cent portion of the Spring Forward SGF three-quarter-cent sales tax to fund capital improvements, community and neighborhood initiatives, and park projects.

The funding covers most of the museum’s $37 million Phase 2 renovation and expansion project and leverages local funds with state, federal and philanthropic investment, Nelson said.

Kate Francis, the executive director of Friends of the Springfield Art Museum Inc., the museum’s foundation, said council’s approval of Phase 2 funding provided a boost to fundraising efforts.

“It’s always the way it goes with fundraising. Once you’re at 90% or so, then everybody wants to get on board,” she said. “We have been doing two or three hard-hat tours a week with donors and prospects.”

Counting the $30 million council allocation, funds secured for Phases 1 and 2 combined total $71.5 million, according to Nelson, and naming-level donations are still being sought.

Nelson said the museum aims to complete all construction in time for its 100th anniversary in 2028.

Phase 2 is focused on the exterior of the museum, expanding programming areas and integrating with surrounding green space, according to past reporting. Phase 1 was mostly about interior improvements.

Nelson said the project was shovel-ready prior to the funding approval. Work is being done to finish design work on Phase 2, but half of the construction documents are complete, he said.

“We’re in a very good position to deliver the project quickly,” he said. “We don’t have to start from scratch.”

In all, the project includes about 20,000 square feet of additions to the 50,000-square foot building at 1111 E. Brookside Drive, according to Nelson, and funds have been provided through the American Rescue Plan Act, state of Missouri general fund allocations, the Missouri Department of Economic Development and the museum’s fundraising campaign.

The project, which was first announced in 2018, began as a $19 million plan but the scope has grown with increased funding.

The architects for the museum project are BNIM LLC of Kansas City and local partner nForm Architecture LLC. The construction manager at risk is The Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. (Kansas City), and engineers are CJW Transportation Consultants LLC, civil; Walter P. Moore and Associates Inc. (Kansas City), structural; and Imeg Consultants Corp. (Kansas City), mechanical, electrical and plumbing.

Renovation and expansion
The tour for SBJ by Nelson and Francis began inside the front lobby, where the Dale Chihuly glass sculpture used to hang from the ceiling. Plans call for that area to expand outward into a front porch setting that flows into the front lawn toward Phelps Grove Park.

From there, Nelson showed off the special exhibitions gallery – formerly the museum’s auditorium.

Nelson said there were a lot of problems with the 1973-built auditorium, including significant issues with Americans with Disabilities Act compliance, like a floor slope that was too steep. There were also mechanical and electrical issues for a facility built in a different time.

“As we thought about what to do with this space, we decided to lean into our mission of exhibitions, and so flattening the floor provided us the opportunity to build this really large, high-ceilinged gallery,” he said.

In the past, the museum had to pass on opportunities to host traveling exhibitions, or it had to cut artwork out of those exhibitions, because of physical limitations of the building, Nelson said. The former auditorium offers more gallery ceiling height at about 20 feet than the roughly 9 feet that was previously standard throughout.

“There is not a space of this scale in an art gallery in southern Missouri,” he said. “We’re really excited about being able to expand what we bring to the community through this space, creating a unique asset and amenity for our community that really doesn’t exist elsewhere.”

He added that to see artwork at the scale the renovated museum will be able to accommodate, visitors currently must travel to Kansas City; Tulsa, Oklahoma; or Bentonville, Arkansas.

He noted that museum team members can build temporary walls to break up any gallery space as required, increasing flexibility.

Nelson said the old auditorium used a lot of cinder block in its design, and that has been crushed and used to achieve the flat floor. That reclamation and recycling helps to achieve the museum’s goal of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Silver, or LEED, certification.

Nelson also highlighted accommodations for museum visitors, including an extra-large family restroom with an adult-sized changing table, a nursing mother’s room and a sensory room to serve people who need a break from overstimulation. There are also seating nooks throughout.

“These are amenities that we’ve been asked for by members of the community and prior to this project had not been able to provide,” he said. “We want to create a comfortable space for people.”

In the past, people have said that if their needs couldn’t be accommodated, they wouldn’t be able to come to the museum, he said.

“The museum programs for the whole community, but if we don’t have those spaces that support them, the programming is not as relevant,” he said.

Nelson also highlighted what he called an art path offering plenty of clearance for work to be exhibited.

“In the past, we’ve had parts of the building where we just couldn’t show certain works because the door was too small,” he said. “This corrects that. The ambitions of the organization were limited by the physical space.”

Major HVAC upgrade
Additionally, the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, installed piecemeal over the years and with many components, are approaching the end of their life cycle. The entire system has been overhauled for $6.4 million, he said, and the system was chosen for its durability and sustainability as well as its functionality. A $50,000 grant from the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation supports energy-efficient climate control systems while advancing the museum’s sustainability, Francis said.

A system that will last a long time was important to museum officials, according to Nelson.

“A lot of thought went into that, and that’s a key piece of this project,” he said, noting that most people will not be aware of it.

It’s a factor that is important when the museum is being considered for loans of artwork or for touring exhibitions, he said.

“If somebody’s donating a work of art to the museum, they want to know that it’s going to be well taken care of,” he said. “They’re going to want to know that we can maintain temperature and humidity.”

Community interaction
As before, the museum will have a courtyard space with plantings and a seating area. It also has windows that allow the community to look both in and out of the museum while providing natural light for the interior. A boardwalk outside of the windows overlooks Fassnight Creek, which is being restored to its natural plantings. Additionally, care has been taken to protect birds with the use of bird-safe glass for windows, Nelson said.

He also showcased a room that could be used for an artist-in-residence – something the museum could not accommodate previously – and another, the Carolla Art Study Room, for close study of artworks by university classes and others. There’s even a dedicated exhibit space university students can use to mount exhibits as part of their educational programming.

Nelson said the museum will continue to lean into local art, with local defined as Springfield and the surrounding Ozarks.

“I really hope it’s a destination for not just art-lovers but also community-lovers and nature-lovers,” he said. “I hope it fulfills its potential as an anchor for the community and for the cultural landscape of our community.”