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Norton Museum of Art
Project Summary
Hanson provided commissioning services and an emergency power systems study for the Norton Museum of Art expansion in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Established in 1941, the museum is one of Florida’s major cultural institutions and is internationally known for its permanent collections.
The multiphase project included the renovation and repurposing of approximately 36,500 square feet of the existing museum, as well as the construction of about 49,000 square feet of additional space. The facility features 12,000 square feet of extra gallery space for exhibitions, an education center with two new classrooms and a student gallery, a state-of-the-art auditorium with seating for 210, a 4,000-square-foot great hall and a versatile dining pavilion with a garden terrace.
Most of the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems in the expansion phase are new, with concurrent expansion of the chiller plant to serve the build-out. The chiller plant had two 200-ton chillers and two cooling towers that had deteriorated because of corrosion; the project resulted in the addition of a 200-ton chiller and the replacement of the two old cooling towers with three new ones. The refurbished chiller plant has a 600-ton cooling capacity.
The museum also chose Hanson to discuss potential options, provide a study of the facility’s emergency stand-by power system capacity and perform research and development of future emergency power options for consideration by the museum’s stakeholders. The study’s goal was to analyze and determine the museum’s emergency power capacity and develop options for increasing emergency power capabilities throughout the museum to mitigate potential damage to the artwork displayed within the galleries during power outages.