North Carolina is holding dozens of events this year to celebrate America’s 250th birthday — but the state’s Museum of History won’t be hosting them at its downtown Raleigh building, which remains closed for a four-year renovation project.
Much of the building that’s told North Carolina’s history since 1994 has been demolished, leaving only the concrete and steel skeleton of the structure. At a price tag of more than $200 million, the rebuild is one of state government’s most expensive construction projects.
Museum Director C.J. Roberts says the major overhaul was needed because the building had an array of problems, from faulty air conditioning to leaky skylights. "The building sort of reflected the era in which it was built," he said. "It's not the most inviting. It's very grand — the granite and all of that, but it's not open and airy and you can't really see in. ‘So, do I really want to go in there? I don't know what's there.’"
The renovation will create a newer, glassed-in entrance and an additional 40,000 square feet of space. Some of that will be used for new exhibits, but the museum will also gain more open space for school groups and to host events.
"I think it'll be very popular," Roberts said. "We should be able to host guests seated dining style, 400 or so, or about 1,000 people in a cocktail party environment. Of course, those kinds of activities are very important to supplementing our budgets."
The museum will continue to have an in-house restaurant, replacing the space that previously housed eateries like "Pharaoh's At The Museum" and "Premier Cakes Diner."
"We're talking to some potential operators now, and hopefully we'll come up with a concept that ties back to the mission, that's sort of an extension of the gallery experience," Roberts said.
'More immersive, more interactive'
Roberts says the new museum exhibits will tell the state’s story up to the present day. "We're redoing each and every exhibition, working to make our exhibits more engaging, more immersive, more interactive, telling bigger stories," he said. "Think about all of the artifacts that we've acquired since 1994 and all the history that's happened. The old 'Story of North Carolina' really stopped with the Civil Rights movement, and we want to bring those stories up to the present."
That massive collection of artifacts is one reason the renovation process will last until 2028. The first year of the project was spent moving 150,000 objects from the collection into climate-controlled warehouses. Roberts says the fourth year of the renovation will involve bringing the collection home and installing new exhibits.
"We are planning a two-phase opening: Phase one in the fall of 2028, which will include our 'Story of North Carolina' exhibit," he said. "The story of the Wright brothers will open around that time, and then in the following spring of 2029, we'll open the remaining permanent galleries."
But just because the building is closed, that doesn't mean telling stories of the state's history has paused. Museum staff (all of them are keeping their jobs during the renovation) are working remotely and hosting pop-up and virtual events. In addition to author events, the museum’s calendar includes a bookmark-making workshop in Apex and a state symbols scavenger hunt for kids in Cary.
The museum is also using the down time to create "a new brand identity" it announced earlier this month, releasing a logo "that looks ahead to the museum’s next chapter while staying rooted in the work that has defined it for generations."
Museum leaders decided against opening a temporary museum space during the renovation, and Roberts encourages visitors to check out other state-run museums and historical sites instead.
"We have seven other museums around the state, so we are still very much open to the public, even though our Raleigh location is not," he said. The museum's gift shop moved to temporary location at 108 Glenwood Ave.
Construction continues, but more funding needed
So far, the project hasn’t been impacted by the state’s long-delayed budget. The state had already approved a total of $180 million through previous budget bills.
Rep. Kelly Hastings, R-Gaston, chairs the House appropriations committee on capital projects. He says the project will "need another $31 million to get to the end of construction. The interesting part about that is, even though we've got to come up with $31 million to complete it, they don't have to stop construction if there's not a new state budget."
According to the state budget office, the project still has enough unspent money to avoid construction delays, but that could change if a new budget doesn’t become law by later this year. The museum is also raising private donations through its foundation to offset the costs.
"We believe the project has sufficient currently appropriated but unspent funds to prevent any project delays in the near term," budget office spokeswoman Marcia Evans told WUNC News. "Should the budget stalemate continue into the next fiscal year, we would need to work with the agency to reevaluate."
A long history of history
The newly renovated building will be the latest chapter for the museum that was founded in 1902 as the "Hall of History," a much smaller collection housed inside a building next door to its current location.
In the 1960s, it was renamed as the N.C. Museum of History and moved into what's now the State Archives building. Its current building took years to build — from a groundbreaking in 1988 to a grand opening in 1994, tripling the size of its previous space.
It cost $29 million to build, a fraction of the renovation cost today. At the time it was built, then-Secretary of State Rufus Edmisten called the new museum "one of the most pressing needs we've ever had," according to a 1990 News & Observer article.
The early '90s also marked the construction of the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences across the pedestrian "Bicentennial Mall." This year, the Legislative Building is once again surrounded by construction as crews build a new "Education Campus" building to replace the old state Administration Building. That building will house the leadership of the state's university system, community college system, Department of Public Instruction and Department of Commerce.
