It's summer in Durham, but some things have changed since last year. Students and visitors don sweatshirts over their summer tees. Drought has given way to ever-present rain puddles. And something is different about Campus Drive.
Construction is underway on the new Nasher Museum of Art, the pet project of outgoing Director of the Duke University Museum of Art Michael Mezzatesta. The $23 million museum, which will replace the East Campus DUMA, is set for completion by summer 2004 and should open the following fall.
Although the construction site on Anderson Street and Campus Drive does not look like much now, Executive Vice President Tallman Trask said passers-by should see evidence of above-ground construction in the next month or so.
"Right now it looks sort of like a big mudpile," Trask said. "It's basically been earthwork until now, but give us 60 days and it'll look better."
Trask said construction has caused only minimal disturbances to daily campus operations. Alexander Road is now closed between Campus Drive and Duke University Road. Otherwise, construction has not affected surrounding traffic, except when workers reduced Campus Drive to one lane last week to lay down a drain pipe.
Construction is currently three or four weeks behind schedule, due to rain and unexpected groundwater at the site, Trask said. The Beck Group construction crew was able to work only nine days in February, but they did create a new entranceway to the museum on Anderson and clear away debris from the site.
Since then, the construction team has continued work on the museum parking lot and poured some of the basement walls.
Trask said construction crews will not have to alter their work schedules once the fall term commences. "Once they are done working with the roads and everything, it won't affect anybody," Trask said. "It's not like construction around the dorms, which woke people up."
After the University receives a certificate for occupancy for the museum in summer 2004, the process of moving and installing artwork into the new museum will begin, Mezzatesta said. He added that the process of installation will take three to four months.
Mezzatesta had been pushing for a new facility for the art museum since he became director of DUMA in 1987. His current contract will expire at the end of August 2003, before the completion of the new museum, and will not be renewed (see related story, page 1). His successor will oversee DUMA's transition from its East Campus facility to the new building.
Mezzatesta said there has been a marked increase in interest in the University's art museum since construction began.
"People now see that work is underway and that the museum is now a reality," Mezzatesta said at the end of April. "Donors and visitors have shown more excitement."
The University continues to raise money to fill the $23 million budget for the new museum. As of last month, fundraisers had secured approximately $18 million, Mezzatesta said.
Trask said construction is on target in terms of budget but noted that the structure is still in its very early stages.
Mezzatesta said in April that the Nasher Museum of Art, when finished, will merit the years of planning and waiting. The new museum, designed by world-renowned architect Rafael Vinoly, is named for Raymond Nasher, Trinity '43, who donated $7.5 million to the new museum.
The completed museum will have five individual pavilions linked by a courtyard. The museum will include a 20th century international art gallery, a special exhibitions gallery, a permanent collections gallery, a 150-seat auditorium and an office facility.
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