Letter to the Editor
Museum disappointment
Published Sunday, June 1, 2008
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To the editor:
On April 5, I visited the new museum and boy, was I disappointed. I visited the old museum a few years ago and was very impressed. When I finished walking around and found that the same things were in the museum and all that money was spent on wasted space, I was disgusted.
Not only was tax money wasted but four local subcontractors went bankrupt. I was told the building was supposed to look like a whale. I stood looking for quite awhile and could not see the likeness of a whale at all.
We lived in Alaska 13 years and I have never made a comment in the newspaper before. However, I felt so compelled to write because of so much money wasted and four families losing their livelihoods.
Community Discussion
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For the cost to taxpayers and citizens, we should have gotten a museum on the order of the Smithsonian, The Hermitage, or the Louvre. Instead we got a mostly empty monument to someone's bloated ego.
Well, hey the tourists like it. Isn't that what sadly matters.
Most people think the University is built on a hill, its not a hill, it is where they put the money they got to "build" things. That is what happens when you give money away, it looses its value and that building is a good example of STUPID spending..
I thought the same thing when I visited after the construction was done. I was looking forward to new exhibits and artifacts. Nope. Same ol same, just in a giant building.
Yep, that is one ugly building and it's a waste! JoeBtfsplk is right: they should have been able to create a FIRST-CLASS facility and exhibits for the obscene amount of money that was spent. But why would we expect the University to do things any differently than usual?
I don't think it's an ugly building at all, but I was shocked when I went in and found that the main exhibit was essentially unchanged: small, crowded, poorly organized, etc. I hope that the museum will reconsider its use of all that space. Perhaps that will lead to another renovation...
What space? I have never encountered such a large structure with so little usable space. Truly an
engineering feat there. I couldn't find the giant copper nugget when I was there last. Progress strikes again. It is bright and sunny though and a nice place to be.
It is amazing how many Alaska artifacts are gathering dust over in European Universities and museums.
Even the tiny country of Estonia has an amazingly large Aleut collection. It would be a step forward for us to begin the long process of recovery and sharing of these lost items. Done on a long term plan with careful diplomacy it would draw us closer to those countries and their universities. This would have many side benefits.
One reason this museum is nothing more than poorly designed mediocre art gallery with a ridiculous doll collection.....................Aldonna.
That's right.
Aldona Jonaitis (whatever her name is) was obviously quite enamored of herself from the get-go, and fancies herself as a card-carrying member of the aristocracy.
Which she certainly established herself as one here, to our detriment.
And the colossal waste of money, space, and ugly architecture is the monument to her ego.
When her damage was done, of course, she left.
I miss the old museum. Like the airport, Alaskaland playground, and everything else it seems any gov has it's hands in "improving," it always ends up worse.
According to the men/women that I have spoken to that worked on that project. All that money went to changes! Everytime they turned around they were changing something. yes, all projects require changes- What looks good on paper is not always obtainable in life. But to my understanding this was far beyond excessive!
I am not sure what the initial comment was REALLY about. Was it the design of the museum, or was it that four subcontractors went bankrupt?
First, let me say that while the work of the architect and the visioning of the project was most likely within her control, Ms. Jonatis was probably not a significant factor as to why the project went so wrong from a construction standpoint. The project was managed by the UAF Facilities department leadership and staff, many ow whom I know and hold in very high regard, as professionals, and thoughtful caretakers of the public's works. For whatever the reasons, this project was deeply troubled.
I cannot speak to the use of space and what value the new building will hold for the future. However I can glean from the article "Longtime museum director to retire in November" on the UAF website and from the comments, that Ms. Jonatis did what she was hired to do. According to the article the museum project was only one of several projects and accomplishments that she is credited with.
So to me, the use of her name as the sole reason for the dissatisfactions (whatever they are) over the museum seems unfair, misguided, and overly simplistic. (maybe even worse)
Look to the prime contractors for their role in this mess as far as the sub's fates were concerned, and look to the design review committee, the architect, and the UAF leadership as a group to assess whether the museum the University got, is what was wanted.
You haven't seen nothing yet. All the money that was spent on Bassett and it only has 28 beds, No ICU, etc. and they are still short of doctors.
To me Pioneer Park is nothing but a tourist trap. I haven't been to the new museum yet and think I'm glad I saved my money. Alaska is so full of history and creative artists and people we could probably sit the Smithsonian on its ears. Pioneer Park could be a living museum. I agree we need to get it out of the borough's mitts and run it with pride.
I think it is a beautifull building-thats what it was meant to be- an architectural feat.
Most beautifull things in life are impractical, the most practical museum would a square w/the most usuable space, low ceilings, stacked on top of one another...but who wants to go to a museum like that....
AR_85 -
I have been to many 'square' museums, all around the world, in fact. What makes each of them special and unique is whats inside!
Too bad more of the thousands upon thousands of items cannot be displayed because instead of building a museum we were looking for a 'work of art'
If you want a work of art, build a statue - it would have been much cheaper...
This is yet another instance of the state/university wasting money, change orders or no...
why not make the art housing a piece of art as well?
because the millions upon millions wasted could go toward more exhibits!!!!
or how about we think outta the box and use it toward...education and scholorships!
Does anyone know just how more "usable" space we got for the bucketload of money?
The "UGLIEST BUILDING IN ALASKA" is straight out of The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.
The "usable space" is probably the hidden-from-the-public storage and laboratory space that all museums desperately need. We visited the museum before, during, and after the rennovation, and I admit that we were disappointed that the galleries were pretty much the same. It looks like the gift shop got better space, there's a cafe of sorts, and I know the administrative offices got an upgrade because a friend of mine went to work there and we were kidding her about her new view of Denali.... I don't remember seeing any galleries with rotating exhibits(other than art)--especially one that could showcase their botanical and natural history specimens (I know because the NPS stores voucher specimens with the UAF museum). It would be nice to see more of Alaska natural history/culture in the galleries. There was an article about 2 months back about how the museum cataloged its 1,000,000th artifact/specimen, and it was something that had something to do with faculty research but NOTHING to do with Alaska. I wonder what their collection policy looks like.
alaskastoryteller :-) I was wondering when someone was going to bring up the new Bassett hospital. It's a building that drives the architectural committee at the Army wild because it doesn't conform to ANYTHING in the plan. I was sorry to see that the old Bassett is going to be torn down. I wish they could have come up with some kind of adaptive reuse, but, true to Fed form --there's always money to build something new, but rarely any money to take care of things that are standing. :-)
I find the North Museum to be a source of joy each and every day in the various seasons and light. The idea that someone is disappointed because it doesn't look exactly like a whale makes me sad and frustrated: they miss the point by such a wide margin. Although I do find the price to admission to be too steep to visit as often as I'd like, I find the displays to be just fine. Space problems? - there are vast amounts of spaces in the multiple lower levels under the main floor.
Although this readership will probably trash the musical work inside by John Luther Adams as well, his career and music was just featured in an extensive article in the New Yorker magazine. His musical installation is a waste to you, too, right?
I am disappointed at the hateful, narrow-minded, and anti-intellectual comments I am reading. To pick on the director personally-- that is simply mean-spirited. I'll bet the same folks really enjoy bashing women like Hillary, too.
Judging on the tone of some of these letters, Alaska really does need to spend more money on education.
The building was never intended to be a giant closet stuffed with galleries. It was designed to be a blend of expansive public space, educational space and research and administrative space. A casual visitor sees only about a third of the space in the expansion. You are criticizing the space for not being something it was never intended to be. See more at http://www.uaf.edu/museum/info/building/...
The space also produces revenue by being available for private parties and receptions. I have rented it for a reception and found it to be beautiful space when the early evening sunlight is streaming in.
As for the aestetics, they are in the eye of the beholder. While Aldona was instrumental in getting the facility built, I don't think she exercised the degree of design control you are implying. I do not think that plunking the field museum on the hillside would have worked. The last thing we needed up there was another giant box.
Go up there with a class of youngsters and see the auditorium and class rooms, take a tour through the research facilities and the storage areas (ask to see the two headed dall sheep) and then appreciate the building for what it is.
I agree that the new museum constuct is disappointing.
A few new gallery areas were added, but there is lots of
empty unusable space that must cost a fortune to heat.
And for heaven's sake, why isn't the door near where the shuttle
bus stops open? Or why can't the shuttle bus be allowed
to stop at the open museum door side? In winter it's a walking
hazard, and in summer the elderly tourists have a hard time.
As for "Pioneer Park" - wouldn't it be nice if they had taken all that money they used to change the name from Alaskaland and used it instead to pave the parking lot, which is a disgrace for all our visitors and a hazard to all?
Part of the University Museum's development was dictated by the growing batch size of groups of visitors to Alaska. In the past 40-50 years, as airplanes, trains and expecially cruise ships have increased in size and number, visitor destinations have had to accomodate larger groups, or simply be dropped from mass tourism companies' (e.g. Holland- America and Princess) destinations. Enclosing more space around the former Museum, increasing the capacity of restrooms, and enlarging the parking lot space were essential steps in accommodating visitors without bottlenecks and long waiting lines. The Riverboats Discovery, Discovery II and Discovery III on the Chena River serve as a reminder that batch size is a fact of life in the travel industry. It's a pity when any visitor feels warehoused or disappointed in the content of any facility serving as a visitor destination.
We hosted a foreign couple for a few days over Memorial Day weekend, and elected to spend half a day with them at Pioneer Park. They were delighted by the working steam locomotive (TVRR #1), the rail museum, the Riverboat Nenana's main deck diaramas, and the aviation museum. Their comments afterward said nothing of a tourist trap, but indicated how informative the exhibits and the park personnel were.
The entire University is not any better. All political now and not much education going on ... if you really want an education you will not fine it there ... or a decent museum!
If the need is to cater to tourists instead of providing a decent education we should shut it down and build a big shopping mall and hotel there instead.
I'm really not sure how I got along at my college - for it had no museum! I always dreamed of a museum shaped like a big whale-tail while I was studying science and solving numerical theory....
All I got was a crummy ole education.....I feel so shortchanged now...
Wait a minute. Is this the same new museum they'd started building before I moved to the Lower 48 nine years ago?
The building is supposed to be two breaching whales. Now you can start to look at it with eyebrows raised. I just feel bad for the guys that had to roof that thing. White rubber and nothing to hold on to except toe-boards. Some times ideas look great on paper.. but somethings need to be left in the science fiction section..
We're going to need a bigger museum for all the extinct Polar Bears. Better raise tuition again!
Wasn't it a white whale that took care of Jonah?
Pedagogue,
Good point about the batch size issue. The same reason the little log cabin doesn't work as a visitor center. Unfortunately, we have to admit that these things can't be geared toward locals to be financially viable. If you truly want a tourism industry here, you have to be able to cater to bus loads of them at a time.
Luckily, we can take advantage of all the things they can't - like the woods and the rivers and the flats and trails.
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