Posted May 7, 2016, 9:33 PM
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[Burlington] Joseph Brant Museum Expansion | ? | ? | Under Construction
thespec.com - Joseph Brant Museum plans addition under iconic historical house
By Carmela Fragomeni | March 16, 2016
Burlington's Joseph Brant Museum is going to try again to get its much-desired $10.2- million addition built underneath the current building.
The museum's request for $430,000 for a detailed design is going to a council committee on Tuesday.
The plan, first presented five years ago, is to build a modern addition into a grassy knoll to be formed underneath the current museum.
The museum, a 1937 replica of the house of Mohawk native Joseph Brant on a 1798 Crown land grant, will be raised higher onto the hill.
It will also be renovated and repositioned to overlook Burlington's Lake Ontario beachfront. Elevators will bring visitors from the new part underneath.
"Brant House is an icon and well known," says director of museums Barb Teatero. "We wanted to keep it as part of the (new) Joseph Brant Museum."
Building the addition underground — the entrance is at street level — maintains the house's outdoor surroundings.
"We only have so much land and we wanted to keep the parkland setting," says Teatero.
The expansion will add 14,000 square feet to the current museum's 5,000 square feet.
Combining the old with the new in this way is a perfect way to save the house and still get a modern, accessible museum, says Coun. Rick Craven. The museum is in his ward and he is a board member.
Craven says he has heard only positive feedback about the plan.
"We get a new museum and we preserve the (old) building … the new space meets all the display and security criteria to attract national travelling exhibits."
The cost, when it was envisioned five years ago, was $10.2 million.
Teatero said the museum is updating that figure, but board chair Larry Waldron says he's not expecting it to go up significantly.
The expansion is contingent on receiving $3.3 million in federal and $2.5 million in provincial funding, Teatero said.
The city and the Burlington Museums Foundation — the fundraising arm — will contribute $2.1 million each.
Teatero said there was hope the expansion would have been done three years ago, but "we were not successful in getting federal infrastructure funds."
The delay, she said, has always been in getting the funding. Now the hope is to have it built by 2017 for Canada's sesquicentennial (150th birthday).
Craven and Waldron are confident funding will come through this time, given the work being done to achieve it.
The board wants to get the detailed design done because "we want to be ready to pounce on the next step when the funding comes through," Waldron said.
"We're being pre-emptive and proactive."
Waldron said everyone he has shown the 2010 schematic design are "quite excited."
He believes people will love the fact the main museum will be underground and the park- like setting the museum is on now will be maintained.
The museum has 25,000 artifacts and receives about 18,000 visitors a year.
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