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Honey, I shrunk the museum

Shrinking museumI hear tell the museum folks are wanting to modify their agreement with the city to make the proposed museum even smaller than it already is. It may come before the council on July 10.

My sources say they want to reduce the gross floor area from 96,000 to 80,000 square feet. I wonder what that will do to the display space. Considering they were only going to have about 70,000 square feet of display space before, this reduction could potentially leave less than 60,000 square feet for the public.

And, of course, a reduction of square footage demands architectural changes to accommodate the smaller space. No word yet on what those changes will be, although I’m still hearing rumors that it will involve reducing or eliminating the second floor.

I would suggest that they follow the sage advice of philosopher C. S. Lewis: “We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.”

Posted by C. J. Summers on Monday, July 2nd, 2007.

20 Responses to “Honey, I shrunk the museum”

As long as they have plush offices, who cares?

Left by Peoria AntiPundit on July 2nd, 2007

What? Less room for big yellow trucks?

Left by Scott J on July 2nd, 2007

Oh no, the Cat museum will still be the same size. It’s just the Peoria Regional Museum that’s shrinking. The old Sears block remains the same size as well, so less building space means more vacant open space.

Left by C. J. Summers on July 2nd, 2007

You don’t want to know what I think. This smells even more like what it has always been, a Lakeview upgrade at the expense of a Peoria history museum. Whatever.

Left by Big Mountain on July 2nd, 2007

I am sorry. Was my time up?

Left by Big Mountain on July 2nd, 2007

Does this mean that the “Rock, Paper, Scissors” tournament is off?

Left by Gamer on July 2nd, 2007

Rock

Left by Paul Wilkinson on July 2nd, 2007

C.J.: Good get.

Left by Billy Dennis on July 2nd, 2007

Possibly no second floor? Arrrghh, this is supposed to be the jewel of downtown not a friggin’ strip mall! So much for being able to have a nice view of the river while you look around. That is, if the plans to expand the RiverFront Village didn’t already nix that. Why is this such a hard concept for the powers that be? You paid good money for someone to literally draw you picture of what to do and you refuse to implement any of it.

Left by BeanCounter on July 2nd, 2007

The answer is simple. Redesign the block plan. The facility really doesn’t need to take up TWO city blocks in downtown. The CAT musuem and the Riverfront Musuem can cozily sit on 2/3 of the site and leave 1/3 available for SMALL scale 2 to 3 story downtown buildings. IF you want retail downtown, you need to provide the space for it. There are very few locations where small tenants can locate.

Left by the guy on July 2nd, 2007

Since the beginning of this “project” years, it’s completion has always been in doubt. Most of the regulars on this site could see this coming [years ago]. Why is it that Lakeview and the powers-that-be could not? Simple question that begs an answer.

Left by Big Mountain on July 2nd, 2007

BeanCounter: Let’s count the beans for all the proposed projects that taxpayers paid hundreds of thousands or millions of beans that Peoria has never implimented. It would definitely be enough to rid ourselves of the garbage tax for police officer scenario — that would be a relief. Just raise our taxes for the police officers — that would at least net us a few cents off our annual tax returns.

I have been out of town — so what are the plans to expand Riverfront Village (on the Peoria side?) please tell me it isn’t so…. if yes, what are the details????

Big Mountain: I think that you already know the answer, another “Emperor’s New Clothes” project for Peoria and the taxpayers and citizens realized long ago that there are no new clothes, still waiting for the Emperor (powers-that-be) to become aware of the obvious transparency of the cloth that they are weaving.

Left by Karrie E. Alms on July 2nd, 2007

The garbage tax isn’t going to do a thing to help the situation. The museum has been kicked around for a decade. People don’t want it. The powers that be do. That’s clear. It’ll be good, probably great, when it goes up, but it will always have a cloud over what could have been.

Left by Anonymous on July 3rd, 2007

Karrie: I think the go ahead for the expanded RiverFront Village was about 4 council meetings ago. Mr. Sandberg specifically asked if the new 3 story (I think) addition would block the view and asked if they had talked to the CAT people. The delevoper sort of said CAT was onboard with the project, It wasn’t a straight answer. Imagine that. It stuck out in my mind because it was just so absurd. Why would they be okay with an office building (which will probably be partially empty) killing the river view for their multimillion dollar welcome center?

Left by BeanCounter on July 3rd, 2007

Here’s my solution:

You want a true “destination” site? Make the entire thing a children’s museum. Kind of like the proposed one, but on a larger scale.

Our daughter, along with almost everyone’s children I know, always say how great the Children’s Discovery Museum is in Normal.

Check out the Indianapolis Children’s Museum. This would be a success, in my opinion.

http://www.childrensmuseum.org/

Left by Mazr on July 3rd, 2007

Lakeview lobbied for the “entirity” of the Sear’s block because they said they needed the space (which was rediculous to begin with)….. now that their space needs are shrinking so should their footprint. I agree with THE GUY, reconfigure the block and allow for some actual urbranization to take place. This is insanity.

Left by chief on July 3rd, 2007

Mazr,

The Indy Children’s Museum is the very largest children’s museum in the world. Something on that scale would be … well, quite large. :) Indy’s is a spectacular museum, but it would require massive monetary support from the community, and Indy is about 10 times the size of Peoria just within city limits!

As for the “proposed” children’s museum, it’s not proposed; it’s occurring with an soft opening target date of fall 2008. Exhibit design is basically finalized (pending, of course, a zillion little changes the actual renovation of the site and building of the exhibits will necessitate). Illinois Early Learning Standards have been met. An educational advisory team is in place. Programming from the Peoria PlayHouse Children’s Museum is ongoing, occurring monthly at the Shoppes at Grand Prairie as well as at individual community events, such as the upcoming Prairie Air Show on July 21-22. (I’ll be working there on the 22nd, stop on by!)

And frankly the Glen Oak Park site is a more appropriate site for a children’s museum than I think the Sears Block would be, with the zoo and botanical gardens right there as well as the park itself. More child-oriented. Plus I like green space.

While plans for both the Peoria PlayHouse and new Lakeview were put in motion long before I moved to Peoria, from what I’ve read, Lakeview isn’t interested in operating a specific children’s museum; instead, they see their mission to be an arts museum and science center. (And I think they do the arts part in particular quite well. Their exhibits are beautifully curated for a museum of their size!)

But hey, mazr, come on down and I’d be DELIGHTED to suck you in to the forthcoming Peoria PlayHouse. We are always after more community involvement, especially from parents and children! Would you and your daughter like an info pack on the museum with exhibit sketches and info and whatnot? I will even personally deliver it. :D

(That offer’s open to any readers, btw. Happy to give you all the info your little hearts desire!)

Left by Eyebrows McGee on July 3rd, 2007

C.S. Lewis must have been talking about Peoria. Amazing, I didn’t realize he knew Peoria existed.

Left by The Mouse on July 3rd, 2007

and this is why the original plan, that was sold to the Peoria public, before the bait n switch, n switch, n switch, occurred. Bring back the retail, the apartments, and the other mixed use that was originally conceived for that block. The upside of the original concept is that it really didn’t matter whether the museum was there or not, nor did it matter much how big it was.

Left by Mahkno on July 3rd, 2007

Can’t we all just get along? Just junk the entire Museum idea and get someone who knows what they are doing to develop a retail stores project- and not the hammerhead doing the present retails and commercial there now. This is the best land in the county and we are screwing it up.

Left by RomanII on July 3rd, 2007