However, we think the Tricentennial will have been a disappointment if some permanent memorial does not emerge from this year’s efforts. We’re not talking about a statue, for we have statues. We’re not talking about a riverfront green, or park, for we have those, too. We speak of a comprehensive history museum. We can think of no better way to “educate, communicate and celebrate” Peoria than through that museum, for it is impossible to appreciate how far we have come as a city and as a people without some knowledge of where we have been.

–Peoria Journal Star editorial, 9/13/1992

In the Beginning

From at least 1991 up through 2002, the talk and momentum for a downtown museum was concentrated on a “comprehensive” history museum. There was a lot of rhetoric — especially from the Journal Star Editorial Board — about the need for a museum that would showcase Peoria’s past.

It was the Peoria Historical Society that first suggested putting the museum on the Sears block, and they even hired a consultant to determine how big of a building they would need. In a May 19, 1998, Journal Star article, it was reported that LaPaglia and Associates, a museum consulting firm, had determined “a museum containing about 18,000 square feet of public space, including two 6,000-square-foot main exhibit halls, is the right size for the city.” Including offices and storage, the total museum size would be 33,000 square feet.

LaHood intervenes

Then in August 2000, Rep. Ray LaHood suggested combining a number of projects that were in the works at that time into one übermuseum. His reasoning? “There’s just not enough money in the community to fund a facility for each one of you,” he told stakeholders, according to an August 31, 2000, article in the Journal Star. In January 2002, the Historical Society, Lakeview, and others combined forces as LaHood suggested. (Incidentally, LaHood was correct about the funding limits, but it doesn’t appear that putting them all in the same building was the solution to that problem.)

Since the collaboration began, the history portion has gotten less and less press over time. After all, history is only a part of the “Peoria Regional Museum: Art, History, Science, Achievement” project now — not even getting top billing at that. And once the building designs came out, most of the focus shifted to the outside and how it would look.

History Takes a Back Seat?

But since the designs have changed and museum officials have directed the public’s attention to the inside again, I got to wondering what portion of the proposed Peoria Riverfront Museum would be devoted to Peoria’s history in the new, smaller space. I called the Peoria Historical Society to find out and spoke with Executive Director Amy Kelly.

Ms. Kelly said that the area I’ve outlined in the above graphic is where the history portion of the museum will be, and that it’s the portion called “The Street.” It will be designed to look like a city street with changing exhibits.

The total area outlined in red above: 14,000 square feet. Notice that it will also be shared with an “international exhibitions gallery,” “fine and folk art galleries,” and the “AAHFM Oral History and Wall of Fame.” The museum collaboration group has not determined how much space will be allocated to each element, and the space allocated could even change fluidly. But even if the history portion got as much as a third of the space on average, that would only be about 4,667 square feet.

Is that enough space to adequately display Peoria’s rich history?

The Delta Approach

While Ms. Kelly didn’t go into detail on how the exhibits would be displayed and changed, I know from reading other sources that the museum consultants, White Oak Associates, have programmed the space using something called the “Delta approach“:

A museum designed for change is a Delta museum; art museums are inherently easy to change, but science centers have formerly required huge investments to throw out the old and buy entirely new units. Thinking of learning spaces as flexible platforms that are equipped to host a succession of changing experiences is part of the Delta museum concept that facilitates change in parallel ways to a theater’s ability to host a succession of plays. The Delta approach calls for a long-term experience platform in each learning space (geared for the architecture of the space, the particular learning skills and the selected thematic content), and a scenario layer that can be removed and replaced with the new content and visitor experiences relatively inexpensively.

Nevertheless, any system, no matter how “flexible,” has to take up some space, and only that much space is going to be on display at any one time. Will less than 5,000 square feet really give Peoria’s history its due to tourists and other one-time visitors? Remember that LaPaglia and Associates had suggested a history-only museum would need 18,000 square feet of public space — more than the entire exhibit area outlined above. Surely there has been no small amount of compromise to get that whittled down to what’s being proposed now.

Storing Peoria’s Treasures

Then there’s another question. What about storage? If pieces are frequently being swapped out in the “Delta approach,” where are all the artifacts being stored when they’re not on display? Answer: where they’re being stored now (i.e., primarily the Pettengill-Morron and John C. Flanagan museum houses) and the current Lakeview building.

That’s right. When the new museum opens, Lakeview is planning to hang on to its building at Lake and University to be used for storage because there’s not going to be enough storage space at the new museum. In particular, there’s not very much space planned in the new museum for special, climate-controlled storage of fragile pieces.

One wonders how the museum will be able to support a brand new $65 million museum as well as a lease, utilities, and maintenance on their old building as well. Lakeview’s lease on their current building is up in 2012, just a year after the new museum is slated to open on the old Sears block. Will they be able to afford to lease that building when they’ll be using it for nothing more than storage? And will the Park District want that building to become nothing more than a storage shed? If they don’t or can’t keep the building, where will the artifacts be stored?

The Money

And then there’s the money angle. The original “comprehensive history museum” planned for the Sears block had an estimated cost of $10 million in 2000. That would be roughly $12 million in 2007 dollars. The new, combined museum has an estimated cost of $65 million, of which just under $25 million has been raised in public and private funds. Museum officials are pinning their hopes on the New Market Tax Credits program to provide most of the extra funding they need.

My Humble Proposal

In light of all this, I think the solution to the problem is pretty clear. Since Lakeview Museum is going to have to keep their current building anyway, and since their new planetarium equipment is already installed in their current location, they should keep their arts and science museum right where it is at University and Lake. Then a separate museum could be built downtown — one devoted to history and achievement. The building could be reconfigured and the cost significantly lowered.

This plan still achieves LaHood’s goal of consolidation, but also leverages assets already owned by those in the collaboration group. After all, there’s no compelling reason to move an established museum like Lakeview — especially if including them in the museum collaboration threatens to scuttle the whole project because of the increased costs their inclusion brings. Plus, this plan would put the focus back on Peoria’s history, which was the original vision for the project in the first place.