Sorting museum building issues high on agenda
THE discussion of strengthening the Southland Museum and Art Gallery will soon return to Invercargill City Council (ICC).
In the first full ICC meeting today, Councillor Nobby Clark will table a motion requesting council to commission a structural engineering and quantity surveyor’s report to identify the cost of strengthening the existing museum structure.
The pyramid Southland Museum and Art Gallery building was closed to the public in April 2018, due to earthquake safety concerns.
Cr Clark said the museum was a key asset for the city and the whole region and the public always asked councillours about it.
‘‘I’ve never agreed with the closure and always been vocal about that. The last report was commissioned in 2014 — five years ago. This is too long.’’
He believed council should discuss the matter urgently as the facility had been closed for almost two years.
‘‘We need to act and do something now or we will have a whole generation that will grow up not being able to enjoy the museum.’’
In 2013, the ICC commissioned Opus — now WSP — to carry out a detailed engineering evaluation which highlighted 15 points of critical structural weaknesses in the museum’s buildings and calculated an overall building strength of less than 34% of the new building standard.
A report was commissioned in 2014 by the Southland Museum and Art Gallery Trust Board saying the Pyramid roof could be replaced or repaired.
‘‘To repair it requires about 50% of the building materials to be demolished and replaced with new and stronger structure,’’ the report said.
It also said the 15 areas of structural weakness were distributed throughout the buildings and were not isolated to any one part.
At the time, in 2014, the estimated cost for the Pyramid building work alone was $9.97 million and excluded collection removal and storage, tuatara relocation and exhibition redevelopment costs.
In 2017, council engaged Opus again to provide a review of its 2013 report and also asked to comment about the ‘‘relatively easy works’’ which Southland Museum and Art Gallery Trust could do to improve the rating of the museum’s buildings.
The report said there were ‘‘too many significant items to make this worthwhile’’.
The museum was closed in April 2018 due to safety concerns and last year, the museum trust agreed to lease a building on the corner of Don and Kelvin Sts and use it as an interim museum.
Southland Museum and Invercargill Public Art Gallery would collaborate in exhibitions in the space for the next years.
The opening was expected to happen in the middle of 2020.