<%@LANGUAGE="JAVASCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> California Collections & Research Center

OAKLAND MUSEUM OF CALIFORNIA: California Collections & Research Center

Oakland, CA

Client
Oakland Museum
of California

Scope
Masterplan

Cost
$1.5 million

Completed
2001

The museum director was pleased that our master plan process developed enthusiastic support from the museum curators, many of whom were initially negative about working on their collections at a remote facility.

PROJECT DETAILS

The Oakland Museum of California (www.MuseumCA.org) owns 1.2 million objects valued at more than $80 million. The collections, which focus on the art, history, and environment of California, include photographs, costumes, historical equipment (some of it quite large), an important collection of California Indian objects, natural history specimens, paintings and sculptures.

The Museum needs a new building to store the portion of the collections that are not currently on display at the museum. After interviewing all the department heads about their storage needs, we spent two days brainstorming with the museum curators and staff. By the end of the second day we had defined a layout that included collection storage spaces, a loading dock, quarantine room, workroom and offices, and secure work space for one or two visiting researchers.

The resulting 50,000 square foot building will have collection storage on two levels. Projected construction cost is $8 million. The building will have 21 foot high ceilings on the first floor to allow for future mezzanines (if local zoning permits) and storage of large objects. The cost also includes the structural capacity to install heavy space-saver shelving anywhere in the building.