Staten Island Museum to celebrate Snug Harbor opening
Staten Island’s North Shore is going through quite the transformation.
Construction on the New York Wheel began last month, with construction fences erected and shovels in the ground for a project slated to open in 2017. All around the site, improvements are happening in the borough to prepare for the projected influx of visitors expected.
One of the first improvements to be completed will be celebrated this month, when on Sept. 19, the new home of the Staten Island Museum at Snug Harbor will open to the public with inaugural exhibitions and a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“We are ecstatic to be opening the doors to our new museum on the grounds of Snug Harbor this fall,” said Interim President and CEO Cheryl Adolph. “We have been working so hard in preparation for this moment and are elated to share our extensive collection with the public.”
The city Department of Cultural Affairs, the City Council and the Office of the Borough President funded a large part of the renovation project, almost $27 million of the $31 million total. Other private support helped complete the project. The museum is holding a community campaign to raise the remaining $300,000 for the new exhibitions, which includes $250,000 for the Elizabeth Egbert gallery — named in honor of the museum’s former president and CEO who passed away last August.
“Staten Island is going through a major transformation right now as people are exploring their neighborhoods, their city, their histories and discovering how truly incredible this borough is,” Adolph said.
“We welcome the curious doers and thinkers from all over New York City and beyond to find those dynamic connections between natural science, art and history that we have been collecting for them since 1881.”
The opening of the museum’s new home in Building A of Snug Harbor has been a “dream” 50 years in the making, officials said. Museum members helped save the nationally significant historic site from demolition in 1965. Now, the museum will relocate to the building, which was originally built in 1879 on the 83-acre site.
The new space will provide more than 18,000 square feet of usable space, including four climate-controlled galleries, an auditorium and performance venue, and classroom space for school field trips. It will be the first historical landmark building on the Island to establish LEED Gold certification, utilizing a “closed loop geothermal system” to use the earth and a series of circulating pumps to heat and cool the building to boost efficiency and reduce operational costs of the building’s heating and cooling systems.
To complete the project this way, the project team, Gluckman Mayner Architects, had to remove the entire interior except one historic staircase, which left only the original exterior walls. Also kept from the original structure were the landmark windows.
Museum officials hope the renovation will continue to provide borough residents and visitors with a wonderful place to celebrate the Island’s history and art, while also taking advantage of the increased projected visitors to the North Shore. Snug Harbor is located only two blocks from the Ferry Terminal.
Founded in 1881, the museum serves more than 219,000 adults and school children at the museum and in the community.
“We are on the precipice of major change for the North Shore of Staten Island,” museum Board Chair Ralph Branca said. “As the first new cultural development along that corridor, the Staten Island Museum is happy to usher in the wave of tourism and commerce that is undoubtedly headed our way.”
