Implementing a Sustainable Environmental System to Preserve Collections

FAIN: PF-271954-20

Glessner House Museum (Chicago, IL 60616-1320)
Mark Nussbaum (Project Director: January 2020 to present)

The installation of an energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable geothermal power system to ensure reliable temperature and humidity control at the Glessner House Museum. This system would provide a better environment, with the ability to monitor and control fluctuations while also reducing operating costs.

Glessner House requests a Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections implementation grant of $350,000 to complete the remaining phases of our geothermal project, begun in 2015, that will reliably sustain optimal preservation conditions for our nationally significant collections. Following the well digging process and completion of zone one in early 2016, GH has developed an achievable strategy to address the preservation quality conditions required to adequately protect and preserve our collections, both in storage and on display. Completion of the project will establish holistic control of the house’s environment and will provide, for the first time, dehumidification and cooling mechanisms throughout the building, as well as improving the efficiency and reliability of the heating systems, thus optimizing preservation conditions throughout the building.