Virginia Museum of Natural History committees review Douglas Avenue renovation, asbestos remediation and collections moves

A joint meeting of the Virginia Museum of Natural History’s facilities committee and its research and collections committee considered next steps for renovation of the museum’s Douglas Avenue facility, focusing on asbestos remediation, phased construction and where collections will be stored during work.

The discussion matters because asbestos removal will affect both the project schedule and how museum staff move and protect specimens; the committees were told the cost of removal will be covered from the museum’s maintenance reserve and that design, bidding and construction phases must be coordinated to protect collections.

Staff described the project as being in schematic design and still short of a 60% design milestone. "We're working through schematic design now," Jonathan, facilities project manager, said, and added that the team is preparing a contractor cost estimate to finalize the schematics. He told the committees the primary near-term constraint is asbestos: "But the hiccup ... is the asbestos," Jonathan said, noting the architecture/engineering (AE) firm provided 11 firms to quote the remediation work and purchasing is processing those quotes.

Committee members and curatorial staff discussed phasing. Jonathan said the project will be done in phases with…