urbanMSP

Apparently funding is included in the house version of the bonding bill for new Bell Museum/ Planetarium facilities, to be located at the southwest corner of Larpenteur and Cleveland. Not an amazing location, but it would be nice to get our planetarium back. I miss that thing.

Updates form the Bell:
http://www.bellmuseum.umn.edu/Informati ... /index.htm

...Destroying the current Bell Museum in the process...

Lori Sturdevant implies in her Sunday column that the College of Design was looking to move into the old building:

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/comm ... 78631.html

If I remember right, though, there were several exhibits that were too expensive to move, so would be demolished.

Regardless, what a stupid idea to put the museum in such a peripheral location. I think this is more evidence for my theory that the U of M leadership has no idea what a city is and how their campus should interact with it. The Nolte quad is such a waste of space, why don't they just expand the museum into it?

I'll agree that the Nolte Mall is wasted. It's tucked on the back sides of buildings without any entrances (only windows), bordered by a car service road and parking, and just completely disconnected from campus (no vistas or views to enjoy while sitting there, not a real foot traffic type place, either). The ivy wall along the museum is pretty, but I can say it was always a ghost town, even during nice weather.

I don't know many students who visited the Bell Museum, and even though I consider myself someone who likes doing that stuff, the only time I ever went in the building was for Intro to Mechanical Engineering sophomore year in the lecture hall. That said, having the museum right there on campus does connect the U to the surrounding area, city, and region. It brings people in and they just might enjoy the beautiful campus while they're there. I would think with all the extra (better) green/open space the U is getting over by the river and through other building removals, they could stand to lose this one and expand the Bell Museum instead of moving it..

I read the Sturdevant story last week, but wasn't the implication that the location choice would be there because it is in Alice Hausman's district?

I don't much care for this location either, but it's probably worth noting that the primary visitors of both of these facilities will be kids on field trips, arriving by a fleet of school buses.

Its location was selected by the University; it's being advocated for by Hausman, but I certainly doubt she had much impact on the location.

The Twin Cities could have a great (or at least very good) Science and Technology Museum if you combined the Bell, with the Science Museum, with a Planetarium, with the Bakken, with the Works. (Just as it could have a great Transportation museum, ...). There are network effects to combining facilities, but obviously some resistance. Why can't these organizations just get along?

combine whatever other museums you want, but the Bakken museum is in a freakin castle. you can't replace that...

The Twin Cities could have a great (or at least very good) Science and Technology Museum if you combined the Bell, with the Science Museum, with a Planetarium, with the Bakken, with the Works. (Just as it could have a great Transportation museum, ...). There are network effects to combining facilities, but obviously some resistance. Why can't these organizations just get along?

Maybe they could add a food court, use the established museums as anchors for new, smaller museums, and provide the whole complex with plenty of convenient parking...

Answers to some questions up-thread...

1. The College of Design will take over the existing historic Bell art deco building. There will be a domino effect of shuffling space that they vacate, and so on.

2. The signature dioramas of highest quality, about 11 or so, will be featured in the new facility. Fate of the others, TBD. The Touch-And-See room will get much more devoted space too.

3. The planetarium definitely explored uniting with The Works and to a lesser extent the Bakken, and SMM. Didn't uncover a workable alliance, although we partner with each of them in some ways. The Bell was far and away the best partner to merge with.

4. Nolte quad was studied seriously as an expansion to the Bell that would facilitate the planetarium addition. Didn't work. Also, whatever you may think of Nolte quad, open space is in limited quantities at the U and heavily protected.

5. As noted, schoolchildren and buses will be the majority of visitors and the dropoff/bus issues were inducing nightmares for (a) the Bell in giving great service and experience to visitors, and (b) traffic/parking administrators at the broader U. The St. Paul location will plain get more visitors than an expanded Bell at the current site. The Bell can't ignore that and also be true to its mission. Also, much of the Bell academic world is on the St. Paul campus and nearly none in Minneapolis. (Although Astronomy, a recent academic subject for the Bell, is in Minneapolis.)

So how would this effect the efforts to put the planetarium on top of the MPLS central library? Would this be one of the rare cases where planing a building in advance for such a heavy addition become nothing at all? If your spending the millions to build a brand new planetarium why not put it where it was intended to belong since the old central library was torn down.

I think we are kind of saturated on Museums now. Don't know what more we need and have the philanthropic dollars to support that is not now being taken care of.

Space Museum, including a Planetarium!

What's this Bell Museum in St. Paul -- is it new? I thought we had a museum of natural history?

The Bell Museum is currently located on the East Bank of the U of M. It will be moving to a new facility on the St Paul Campus.


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Do you have a source for the Bell Museum moving? I haven't heard anything about a new building.

I don't know if the move has been funded yet, but that's the plan. I've heard from people who work at the College of Food, Ag, and Natural Resource Science (the museum is part of that college at the U).


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It's been in the works for decades - back in the 1970s and 80s there were a series of concerns raised about the current home (1920s era)couldn't support proper climate controls and many of the exhibits were decomposing due to insects and humidity. Much of the collection was not able to be viewed and their mission of education was really not being met. I hope that they are able to get this off the ground - there is a real opportunity to compliment the Science Museum with more natural history content.

It's not the roof of the Central Library, but it will do.

A New Museum and Planetarium Nears Reality!

May 18, 2014
Dear project supporter,

"I am excited to announce that pending Governor Mark Dayton's approval, funding will be provided to construct a new Bell Museum of Natural History and Planetarium. After years of planning, fundraising and advocacy, our shared dream of expanding awareness of Minnesota's natural history and STEM education is being realized. Thank you for all you have done to make this dream a reality!"

http://www.bellmuseum.umn.edu/Informati ... /index.htm

What will Alice Hausman obsess over now?

I've never heard of the Bell Museum of Natural History -- is it large? Is this new museum supposed to be substantial? I LOVE Planetariums and have been advocating for one since the last one left our city. I'm not so sure about it being located away from the downtown core but as long as it's fairly accessible (esp. by rail) then I think it can do well.

You could try googling: "Bell Museum of Natural History."

I just did, and the result you are looking for comes up on top.