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.

Mark your calendars for the next design workshop with the architects, which is planned for November 14th, from 5 to 6:30pm. At this workshop, the architects will lead us through an exploration of the relationship of spaces within the building to each other and to the site.

After deliberating for over a year and a half, the Pratt’s Board of Directors has decided to proceed with design of the new building and site without the existing museum building. This was an extremely difficult decision for the Board to make: Many folks within our community have historical and emotional ties to the existing building, and this building has been well-used and well-loved for a long time.

The primary reason for the capital project is to improve the Pratt’s ability to meet its mission to care for collections and help bring the stories of our history and place to our community, visitors and the next generation. The Board’s decision on the existing building took into account factors including financial sustainability, site utilization including the amount of area needed for parking, and operational efficiency.
Some of the features that are most popular will inform the design of the new building. Community members have provided guidance for the architects with a recent style exercise, identifying exteriors and interiors of buildings that are appealing to them.

We will continue to look to the community, over the next few years of planning and work, to provide additional ideas for ways to recycle and reuse building materials. One idea is to place the boat display structure on the site of the original building so the foundation can be re-used. We will consider this and other ideas as we move forward. The Board and staff wish to honor the current building and all those people who worked so hard over the past several decades to make this community’s museum so highly-regarded.
Thank you to everyone who provided input through community meetings or talking with Board or staff individually.

The Pratt Museum is pleased to announce the selection of the architectural firm that will design the Homer community’s new Museum building: the Anchorage firm of Livingston Slone. Tom Livingston and Joe Abegg will be the primary architects on the building project. “The Pratt Museum is the jewel of Homer and a source of great pride to Alaskans. Livingston Slone is honored to assist this National Merit Award-winning museum in designing their new facility,” said Tom Livingston.

Tom Livingston, raised in Anchor Point and a frequent visitor to Homer, will provide design team leadership, project and contract management, and quality control. Livingston has provided these services for some of Alaska’s most unique museum facilities, community/cultural centers, and other public facilities, including 18 museum projects. He is known for this thorough knowledge of technical and aesthetic challenges of museum buildings in all regions of Alaska. Livingston has worked with countless community groups, small municipalities and nonprofit organizations to bring their projects to successful fruition. His portfolio contains over 300 projects, including the firm’s entire museum portfolio and various museum/display facilities imbedded in other projects.

Joe Abegg will serve as project architect. Abegg has provided design expertise for numerous museums and community centers, many of which have received design awards for attention to arctic issues and sustainable design. A LEED Accredited Professional, Abegg’s designs consistently incorporate energy
efficiencies. His award-winning design of the YKHC Community Health Services Building in Bethel was featured as a case study in a national American Institute of Architects (AIA) publication on energy efficient design. Abegg’s portfolio includes numerous relevant projects, including the $33 million Alaska SeaLife Center, for which he designed education areas, animal habitat and rehabilitation areas, and wet and dry research labs; and for which the project was awarded the AIA’s Honor Award for Design Excellence. Other relevant projects include the North Slope Borough Cultural Center; Museum of the Aleutians; Yupik Cultural Center; the Pratt Museum’s expansion (in the 1980s); and Campbell Creek Science Center.

A project launch reception is scheduled for August 1 from 5:30 to 6:30pm, when community members may meet the architects and learn more about the schedule for fall public design meetings.

Request for Proposals: Architectural and Design Services
The Pratt Museum is accepting proposals for architectural and design services for the planning and design of a new building. Copies of the complete RFP (including addendum) can be downloaded here. Copies of the 31 March addendum can be downloaded here. To be notified of changes please register by email.