After a three-year, $60 million renovation and expansion project, the Speed Art Museum reopened last week.
Check out time-lapse video of the project posted by the Courier-Journal:
The 30-hour opening celebration included music, dance and more, with partner organizations from across the community joining in.
The museum’s new glass façade buildings, which wrap around the original structure, are designed to maximize natural light and showcase the museum’s collection. Too much, light, however, could be damaging to the collection, so the glass walls are embedded with metallic rectangles that filter the light and deflect the harsher rays of the sun. The metallic rectangles are more dense at the top of the building, and graduate as they cascade down the wall.
Most of the interior lighting has also been switched to more energy-efficient, less harsh LED lighting, too.
The interior of the entire museum must be maintained at a constant temperature of 72 degrees to protect the collection, which includes paintings, sculpture, furniture, textiles and other objects, some of which are thousands of years old.
Glass walls, integrated old and new construction and other factors could make temperature control a challenge in such a facility. The Speed is overcoming that challenge with an integrated control system designed by ECTServices.
The Speed is also pursuing LEED building certification.
For more information about the Speed, visit their website.