Work In Progress Expanded Museum With New Exhibits And A New Name Set To Open Fall 2001

Construction of the new culture and history museum in Browne’s Addition passes the halfway point this summer, still on schedule for opening next year.

Reinforced concrete walls have been rising slowly from a massive excavation next to the 1960 Cheney Cowles Museum at 2316 W. First.

Four new levels of gallery space — along with an amphitheater, cafe, store and meeting rooms — are rising from the hole, visible from West Riverside at Hemlock.

Ground breaking on the project was last August. The existing museum is being renovated and expanded. New interpretive landscaping will surround the buildings.

“It’s not going to be anything like the old Cheney Cowles Museum,” said Joyce Cameron, the museum’s director of development and communication.

So dramatic is the change that the Eastern Washington State Historical Society board adopted a new name for the complex.

It will be the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, and will include the 1898 Campbell House and the Cheney Cowles Museum.

The state legislature approved $20 million for the $28 million expansion with the rest coming from donations.

The museum and its community supporters still must raise $1.9 million in local contributions to finish the work and enhance the museum with security systems, technological innovations and furnishings.

Such a large investment is expected to turn the museum into a major regional attraction located in the heart of Spokane’s oldest residential neighborhood.

“I think you are going to find a lively place with a lot going on,” said Jane Johnson, chief executive officer of the museum, during a recent progress report to staff members at The Spokesman-Review.

Johnson, who is known for her organizational prowess, came out of retirement from Eastern Washington University to head the construction and fund-raising work.

She bubbled at the thought of the new complex opening in the fall of 2001.

“We think we’ve got a real exciting lineup,” she said of the three exhibits planned for the grand opening.

She said the exhibits will showcase some of the most significant pieces in the museum’s vast collection of artifacts. They also will feature acclaimed regional artists.

Two galleries in the new museum will be devoted to “People of the Rivers: Lifeways of the Northern Plateau.”

This Native American exhibit will feature acquisitions from Spokane’s former Museum of Native American Cultures, which closed in 1992 and turned over its remarkable collection to the Cheney Cowles Museum.

In fact, it was the need to display and store the Indian artifacts that led to initial discussions of expanding the museum.

Today, the collection totals 36,000 objects, many of priceless value to Indian heritage. The collection is considered one of the best of its kind in the world, especially for its thorough presentation of Northern Plateau culture.

The exhibit is described as “a creative collaboration with the Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, Kalispel and Colville tribes (that) tells the exciting story of the region’s first inhabitants from their perspective.”

The exhibit will include interactive features such as a craft market, demonstrations and videos of native dances.

The second exhibit is entitled, “Home Towns: Heart of the Inland Northwest.”

According to the museum staff, “Here visitors will learn how the region’s small towns are similar, because of their shared geography and history, and how wonderfully different they are, in spite of these similarities.”

“We are going to create a small town U.S.A.,” Johnson said.

The third exhibit brings a series of three artists to the galleries, including photographer Robert Adams of Astoria, painter James Lavadour, a Walla Walla Indian now living near Pendleton, Ore., and multi-media artist Jim Hodges, a 1980 graduate of the former Fort Wright College in Spokane.

The exhibits are being designed through a Portland, Ore., company called Formations.

While museum officials have strived to spend the expansion money in the local economy, they’ve also reached beyond Spokane for experts in museum architecture, lighting acoustics, engineering, food service and even elevator systems.

At least $12 million will be spent locally, they said.

The general contractor selected in a competitive state bidding process is Bodell Construction of Missoula, Mt.

Bodell is using state-of-the-art construction equipment such as laser leveling devices to set foundations and pour walls. Some 19,000 cubic yards of concrete will go into the project when it’s finished.

The job uses a combination of union and non-union trades under what is a prevailing wage contract.

Initially, the contractor excavated some 40,000 cubic yards of dirt and rock, and stockpiled some of it for backfilling against the new museum walls and parking garage.

There have been some complaints from neighbors about the dirt and dust on adjacent streets. The contractor has been cleaning them regularly.

For the most part, the neighborhood has supported the project and accepted its temporary inconveniences.

A couple of complications have arisen. City building officials requested an expansion of the stormwater handling system, so extra drywells were added to the project.

Also, asbestos sheets were discovered buried in the ground next to an apartment building the museum purchased for expanding the campus from five acres to eight acres. A parking garage is being built where the apartments once stood.

Despite the problems, work is on schedule.

“We are still on target for the opening,” said Maurine Barrett, director of operations and administration.

“We are pouring concrete like crazy,” she said.