Improving Climate Control in the Museum's Main Exhibition Building

FAIN: PF-50078-10

Public Museum School (Grand Rapids, MI 49504-5351)
Marilyn K. Merdzinski (Project Director: December 2009 to April 2012)

An implementation project to install new automated control equipment for the heating, ventilating, and air conditioning system in a museum focusing on the history and culture of Grand Rapids and its surrounding region.

Energy costs at the Grand Rapids Public Museum consume more than $1 million annually. The Museum, cognizant of its global responsibility to be "green," is currently taking measures toward LEED-EB certification. However, the most pressing need--and one critical to preserving its significant humanities collection--is to address the failing environmental controls of the HVAC system at its 15 year old main facility, the Van Andel Museum Center. An interdisciplinary team of experts concluded that replacement of the direct digital control system is a critical preventative conservation measure and immediate need. With assistance of this grant, the Museum will be able to purchase an open protocol DDC which was bid out two years ago and brought to schematic design at that time. The Museum was unable to implement the plan earlier due to funding shortages experienced during Michigan's severe economic downturn. This grant reduces the Museum's expense by 50% making implementation feasible.