Top 5 cultural stories — No. 1: U.S. Marshals Museum design

Editor’s note: With the days, weeks and months seemingly passing faster than ever, it can be difficult to remember what happened yesterday much less the past six months. To that end, The City Wire will review the top 5 Fort Smith regional stories of the first half of 2009 in the following categories: Business/economy, political, and cultural. Link here for the top business stories, and link here for the top political stories (the list of stories are at the bottom of each linked story).

With surprisingly little fanfare, the board of the U.S. Marshals Museum approved an iconic building design for the roughly 50,000-square-foot building to be constructed on the Fort Smith bank of the Arkansas River.

The board approved the design June 9.

“Our exhibit design and building designs are now in place. … Now we have a product for that (fundraising) effort,” Museum Project Director Sandi Sanders told the board.

A price tag to for the entire project, including the building, exhibits, landscaping, furniture and fixtures and other essentials, could be as high as $50 million. Previous estimates had the cost ranging between $30 million and $40 million.

Peter Kuttner with Cambridge 7 Associates, one of the two architectural firms hired to design the museum, provided an overview similar to the preliminary design proposal he made to the board April 23. Kuttner said the primary community feedback from the public meetings of late April were that residents stressed the “need for an iconic symbol” but within a structure functional for a wide range of community uses.

Image of the museum viewed from the Garrison Avenue bridge over the Arkansas River.
The basic design was formed around the “star” of the Marshals badge. The building features several roof structures that mimic the look of a star segment, and each roof “protects a different function” of the museum.

The roughly 50,000-square-foot building includes a large lobby space that would allow for up to 200 to be seated at formal dinners associated with fundraisers. The building is to be categorized into three separate exhibit spaces: “Frontier Marshals” featuring the beginning and early history; “Marshals Today,” which highlights aspects of the modern U.S. Marshals Service; and “America Divided,” which seeks to highlight the role of Marshals during difficult times in U.S. history.

During the June 9 meeting, the museum board also heard from Russ Hodge, with the Dublin, Ohio-based The Hodge Group, about the effort to raise money for museum construction and operations. Hodge said 5-7 years is the average length of time to raise funds for projects like the Marshals Museum, and he said not to let concerns with the national economy dim their hopes. He said philanthropic organizations and individuals “will support exciting and dynamic causes” like the Marshals Museum with its national scope.

PREVIOUS TOP 5 CULTURAL STORIES
No. 5 — John Bell/UAFS painting
No. 4 — Elvis haircut anniversary
No. 3 — Fort Smith Art Center/Arvest donation
No. 2 — Wakarusa Music Festival