Bainbridge Island Museum of Art in Photos

Photos of the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art by local photographer David Cohen

The Waypoint Park in Pictures

Nearly two years of effort on the part of over 50 volunteers has culminated with the opening of the award winning Waypoint park. Located at the corner of Winslow Way and Highway 305, on property co-owned by the City of Bainbridge Island and Kitsap Transit, The Waypoint is the first impression for Island visitors and a welcome home to returning residents. This project reflects the elemental character, history and sense of place that is Bainbridge Island.

Here are some great new photos of The Waypoint Park taken by local photographer David Cohen.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR - Let’s demand the highest ‘green design’

July 29, 2013 · 8:56 AM
CHRIS MCMASTERS
Bainbridge Island
 

To the editor:

Bainbridge Island is a leader in sustainability and green design. We have a number of architects, designers and community groups that work to create healthy, vibrant places. It’s brilliant. It’s something we all share and can celebrate.

For example, take a look at the Grow Community development sprouting up in Winslow: It meets stringent One Planet Living Program standards with highly efficient solar powered homes. The development is within walking distance of shops and transit and offers solar-powered cars for neighbors to share when longer trips are desired.

The new Bainbridge Island Museum of Art is another great example. While beautiful for many reasons, this new home for regional creative works serves as a small clean energy power plant. It uses both solar panels and a geothermal heat pump to produce its own clean electricity and like Kids Discovery Museum, it has a vegetated roof to minimize runoff. It will likely earn LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

Another innovative green building is Wilkes Elementary School. Its geothermal technology is exposed in the media center so students can get a visual of the modern engineering hiding in the building walls and floor. Outside you’ll notice much of the pavement is different – it’s pervious. Instead of sealing the earth and carrying the goo that leaks from our cars into the Sound, the rain will slowly percolate through the pavement and process the toxins naturally. This is good news for those of us who like our seafood sans pollution. The architects in this project used The Living Building Challenge to guide their design.

Click here to read the rest of this letter -->

Business spotlight: Second location planned for bustling Bainbridge Bakers - KITSAP SUN

Mike Louden’s Bainbridge Bakers has grown so busy, he’s planning a second location at the Island Gateway development near the new Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. His current bakery is located in Winslow Green.

The new Bainbridge Bakers will occupy 3,000-square-foot space building under construction in the Island Gateway development.

Read more: http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2013/jun/30/business-spotlight-second-location-planned-for/?partner=RSS#ixzz2Yf7cWbvs

Follow us: @KitsapSun on Twitter | KitsapNews on Facebook

Bainbridge Island Museum of Art Opening

Here are some pictures from the opening of the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art on Friday.

Marty Sievertson and Craden Henderson from PHC Construction

A new, light-filled art museum for Bainbridge and West Sound - SEATTLE TIMES

SEATTLE TIMES
Originally published June 11, 2013 at 8:07 PM | Page modified June 11, 2013 at 8:41 PM

Five years in the making, the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art — with a focus on regional art, especially work from the western side of Puget Sound — opens June 14, 2013.

By Michael Upchurch
Seattle Times arts writer

How do you build an art museum from scratch?

Over the past five years, folks on Bainbridge Island have been figuring that out. And the fruit of their efforts, the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art (BIMA), opens on Friday.

The museum, just a short stroll from the ferry terminal, is almost the first thing you see as you make your way into Winslow. Resembling the prow of a glass ship, the 20,000-square-foot building dominates the corner where Highway 305 and Winslow Way East intersect.

BIMA is the brainchild of arts patron Cynthia Sears. After she and her husband moved to Bainbridge in 1989, she began collecting local artists’ work. But it bothered her that there was no public venue providing a full overview of what was happening in the local art scene.

Sears’ children were grown and she wasn’t working — so she realized, as she explained in a recent phone interview, that she had “the perfect opportunity to do something.”

By 2008 the museum site had been secured, and in 2009 the museum’s founding board was established. Matthew Coates soon came on board as architect, and the first thing he did was ask Sears about her vision for the museum.

Her reply made a big impression on him.

“I envision a library for art,” she said.

She went on to explain that she saw art as such an important part of the community that she felt people should have free access to it, all the time. Asked what she thought the building should look like, she said she didn’t know, but that she knew what she hoped reviews of the building would be like: “I want people to say: ‘It’s a little gem.’ ”

It is that. Two floors, each with its own spacious gallery, are open to the public. A curving staircase, open to the light, connects the gallery, creating a grand effect on a compact scale. Inside the “ship’s prow,” an aquatic-themed installation, made from recycled materials by Port Townsend artist Margie McDonald, looms in a trapezoid of glass looking down in the direction of the ferry terminal.

Greg Robinson has charge of the museum, and his duties as executive director are both curatorial and administrative. He brings a varied background to the job. Local arts-scene followers will know him as the former executive director of the Museum of Northwest Art in La Conner, Skagit County. But he got his master’s degree in public administration and spent his early career in hospital planning in New York. He came on board at BIMA in late 2010.

“The footprint of the building was designed,” he recalls. “The interiors weren’t completely planned, so I worked to help to find some of the programmatic needs inside.”

It took a $15.6 million capital campaign to get the project off the ground, of which $1 million remains to be raised. Getting people to fund an institution that doesn’t exist yet was, Robinson admits, a little trickier than soliciting funds for something already up and running.

Robinson is forthright about the museum’s mission: “We will be a collecting museum. ... We have the beginnings of a permanent art collection.” The focus, he adds, will be on artists who are lesser known or who haven’t had a “museum opportunity” yet.

“What we really want to do is curate here, from the region,” Robinson says, “with an emphasis, early on, on the West Sound.”

One of the museum’s two large galleries will display works from the permanent collection. The other is reserved for rotating shows that will be locally curated.

For the museum’s opening, seven exhibits will be on display. They include a selection from the permanent collection, a retrospective of work by Bainbridge artist/children’s book author Barbara Helen Berger, and “First Light: Regional Group Exhibition,” co-curated by Robinson and six guest curators.

One of Coates’ biggest design challenges was how to allow incoming light without damaging the artwork. Adjustable sun louvers, windows with built-in UV protection, internal mechanical blinds and movable walls will keep out damaging sun rays.

“At night,” Coates says, “the building’s going to glow like a jewel box, a beacon.”

Coates and the board went to great lengths to make the museum energy-efficient. Geothermal wells below the building and solar panels on its rooftop are connected to its heating system, reducing electric consumption. The building was designed to meet the standards for LEED Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. If it gets the certification, it will be the first museum in the state to do so.

In addition to gallery spaces, the building includes an auditorium that seats 99, a classroom, archive/storage space and a small museum store. There’s parking for 180 cars on the site, but much of the foot traffic is expected to come from tourists and Seattleites making a day trip across the Sound.
Sears’ most earnest hope for the museum is that it will serve as a window into the vibrant local art scene and allow young artists in the region to get a foot in the door: “I would just love people to be able to appreciate the artists and the craft persons who are working around us now and give them attention and support while they’re still alive. And I think this is one way to do it.”

Michael Upchurch: mupchurch@seattletimes.com

Pace of construction and renovation projects picks up - KITSAP BUSINESS JOURNAL

KITSAP BUSINESS JOURNAL

Real Estate — Peninsula Roundup

June 4, 2013 @ 12:49pm

 

 An artist's rendering of what the completed Bainbridge Island Museum of Art will look like. The museum is scheduled to open in June.Although the recovery in the commercial real estate sector is slow, the past year has seen increased activity in new construction. There are various projects in the works or on the drawing board around the Greater Kitsap Peninsula, as well as numerous tenant improvement projects, which continue to see strong interest.

Below is a roundup of some of the commercial construction activity happening around the West Sound:

Bainbridge Island has been busy with several projects. The Bainbridge Island Museum of the Arts is nearly completed, with a ribbon-cutting scheduled for June 14. The building is slated to become LEED Gold-certified, the first museum in the state to do so. The three-story, 20,000-square foot building includes three galleries and a large archival space and is part of the Island Gateway complex that includes the KidiMu.

Also part of the complex is a retail/commercial building under construction in the spot where Eagle Harbor Market once stood. The building will have retail on the ground level and commercial/office space on top, with a parking garage underground. The steel structure is complete and the metal studding nearly done, with roofing and mechanical systems going in next. Both this building and the museum are designed by Coates Design architects and built by PHC Construction.

In the Lynwood neighborhood of the island, the first phase of the Pleasant Beach Village mixed-use project, designed by Wenzlau Architects, has been completed by Fairbank Construction (see related story). The second phase will begin with site grading this summer. The second phase includes 22 courtyard-style apartments and a community pool. A third phase will eventually add as many as 45 single-family homes.

On the drawing board for the island is a shopping center off High School Road that will be designed in the style of Seattle’s University Village. The eight-acre site will include seven buildings for a total of more than 60,000 square feet and a drug store as the anchor. The project is in the planning stages by Wenzlau, with construction expected next spring.

Harrison Medical Center is also planning a new project on Bainbridge, a medical building at the corner of Madison and State Route 305 that will include 24-hour urgent care and a primary care clinic, as well as itinerant space for lease by physicians. Harrison was in the process of finalizing the land purchase agreement at the end of May and CEO Scott Bosch said they were confident the agreement would go through. The center, designed by Coates, will include 17,000 square feet on two levels. Tim Ryan Construction is expected to start building in the fall.

Another project on the drawing board is the renovation of Town & Country Market sometime early next year, but the store will stay open during construction.

In Kingston, the BJC Group is working on a new home for Puerta Vallarta restaurant at “George’s Corner.” The 6,000-square-foot building is about a month away from completion and will feature unique interior finishes such as metal, concrete countertops and brickwork. The restaurant will be moving into the building from its previous location, which was leased.

Rice Fergus Miller is working on a new home for the Kingston branch of Kitsap Regional Library. The planning is in the early stages. The library is part of the Village Green project, which is also slated to include a community center and a senior housing complex. The Village Green Foundation is still raising capital funds for the center.

RFM is also working on the design of the Suquamish Clearwater Casino Resort’s expansion, part of a four-phase master plan. The first phase will include the addition of 10,000 square feet of meeting space and another 4,500 square feet of “pre-function” space. Also part of this phase is a new 700-car parking garage, new fine-dining restaurant, remodeling of the Longhouse Buffet, more office space and new walkway/elevator entrance.

Construction is expected to last 18 months and be completed in December 2014. Future phases will add a 100-room, five-story hotel; remodel and expand the casino; and add more meeting space. The entire master plan is scheduled for completion by December 2017.

In Poulsbo, the BJC Group is working on another restaurant, King’s Wok. This will be the second location for the restaurant that is currently in Silverdale. The 6,800-square-foot building is going up in the Oldhava area, near WalMart, with construction anticipated to start in July and be completed in seven months.

Poulsbo’s former DME Auto building, located on Seventh Avenue, will be getting a façade facelift. The vacant building is being redesigned by ADM Architecture to create a multi-tenant layout and help attract new tenants.

Also in the works is a new Safeway on Lincoln Road off SR?305. Previous buildings on the site, including the former headquarters of Olympic Property Group, have been demolished. The 59,000-square-foot store, which will have a gas station, is expected to open by December.

In Silverdale, the largest new construction project is nearly completed by Andersen Construction. Harrison Medical Center’s new orthopaedic hospital, adjacent to the Silverdale hospital campus, is scheduled to open in mid-September. Installation of medical equipment will begin in late August. The hospital, designed by Rice Fergus Miller, will have 54,000 square feet of space, four large orthopaedic operating rooms and 16 pre/post-surgery bays on the first floor; 24 single-patient rooms on the second floor; a rooftop rehab trail and various amenities geared specifically for orhtopaedic patients and procedures. The third floor is being built out for a future expansion, which will include 26 patient rooms.

Another medical project in Silverdale is the expansion of Retina Center NW, designed by Indigo and being built by Tim Ryan Construction. The 3,200-square-foot expansion will be done in June.
Other tenant improvement projects in Silverdale include an All Star Lanes major facelift (the bowling alley will remain open through construction), which BJC Construction expects to finish in August; and the upcoming renovation of a 4,000-square-foot building that will house a new Cobalt Mortgage branch, an ADM Architecture project currently in permitting stage.

In Bremerton, the 10,000-square-foot Salvation Army headquarters on Sixth Avenue will be gutted and completely redone, with another 13,000 square feet on two floors added to the ’70s building. Hecker Architects and Fairbank Construction are working to add a hygiene center and other service areas and to upgrade the exterior. Construction is likely to start in the fall and last about a year, with the Salvation Army HQ to be moved temporarily.

The former Dodge dealership on Auto Center Way has become the headquarters for Skookum Contract Services. Rice Fergus Miller and Tim Ryan Construction are working on a 16,000-square-foot expansion of the office space (into what used to be the old shop). The project is in permitting.

Downtown Bremerton is adding more apartments. Lorax Partners of Seattle, which developed Bremerton Harborside, is adding four floors on top of the city’s Burwell/Fourth Street parking garage (one side of which has the new SEEfilm Cinema on top). Described as the only vertical urban apartment living and unique for Kitsap County, the building will include 71 units ranging from studios to two bedrooms, expected to be available in 2015.

Another downtown apartment project, Spyglass Hill, is just beginning the design review and permitting process. It’s planned for the 600 block of Washington Avenue, just south of the Manette Bridge. Sound West Group is the developer and its in-house partner, FPH?Construction, will build the five-story structure that will have 80 apartments with views over the water.

The Sydney complex of eight apartment buildings is nearing completion in Port Orchard. The 106-unit development built by Rush Cos. of Gig Harbor is behind a small commercial center at the northwest corner of Sidney and Sedgwick roads.Port Orchard has new apartments under construction. Rush Cos. is nearing the completion on The Sydney, 106 units in eight three-story buildings off Sedgwick Road. The initial phase will be done in June and the rest in August. The garden-style, higher-end apartments will include one — to three-bedroom units.

Across the street, Rush will be breaking ground in June on The Sinclair, another 126 units that will be similar in style but also include studio apartments.

The second phase of Kitsap Community Resources’ Port Orchard project is also nearly complete. The first phase was the construction of a new center that opened in September, and the second is the addition of Jackson Village, 10 affordable homes now under construction. Both are Wenzlau/Fairbank projects. The homes are cottage style and will have a common playground area shared with the KCR admin building.

A couple of upcoming Port Orchard projects include the expansion/tenant improvement of a vacant space in the High Point Shopping Center by the Bethel roundabout, and a major renovation of the Kitsap Regional Library’s Port Orchard branch.

In Gig Harbor, Ship to Shore will soon have a new downtown storefront, doubling its current space. Miles Yanick & Co. is designing a new 7,000-square-foot building next to Arabella’s Landing. The project has a site plan and is in early permitting stages, with construction expected to start by the end of the year and be finished in time for a summer 2014 opening.

http://kpbj.com/feature_articles/2013-06-0/pace_of_construction_and_renovation_projects_picks_up

Bainbridge Island Museum of Art Opening June 14th!

We are busy getting things wrapped up at the new Bainbridge Island Museum of Art which will officially open its doors on Friday, June 14th, with a ribbon cutting ceremony at 11:15 AM.

 

 

Bainbridge Island Museum of Art - Grand Opening from Vision to Reality

Learn more about the new Bainbridge Island Museum of Art,  the work that went into its creation, and the parties involved, in this magazine published by the Bainbridge Island Review.

click here to view an electronic version of the magazine

Bainbridge Island Gets an Art Museum - SEATTLE MAGAZINE

SEATTLE MAGAZINE 

By: Brangien Davis

Bainbridge Island showcases local bounty with a new, eco-friendly museum dedicated to area artists   

 

Executive director Greg Robinson prepares for the June 14 grand opening of BIMA

PHOTO CREDIT: Hayley Young

Creatively focused, eco-obsessed, possessing an urban sensibility and locavore leanings, beautiful without being braggy—the new Bainbridge Island Museum of Art (BIMA) might well be considered the embodiment of the island community itself. And just as the residents prefer the island’s laidback vibe to Seattle’s comparative bustle, BIMA supporters and staff have no intention of trying to compete with mainland art institutions, such as Seattle Art Museum. Instead, the focus is on contemporary work by artists from the Kitsap and Olympic peninsulas and the western Puget Sound region. 

Founding board member Cynthia Sears, who moved to Bainbridge from Los Angeles in the late 1980s and first began talking up the idea of building an art museum there in the early ’90s, says BIMA is perfectly content with being (as an actor friend of hers put it) “off Broadway.” “Not just smaller, but more regional,” Sears explains. “Less about big productions and famous work than about excellence of craft and helping newcomers get a foot in the door.”

That door, by the way, is made from sustainable FSC-certified wood (and the foot is likely shod in a Keen athletic sandal). The new building, which came together thanks to a Bainbridge-based collaboration—The Island Gateway developers, Coates Design architects and PHC Construction—and a largely locally funded $15.6 million capital campaign, is anticipating LEED Gold certification. When that status becomes official, it will be the first art museum in the state (and one of only a few nationwide) to achieve such green street cred.

The building is first and foremost inviting, thanks to a striking curve of tall windows that sweeps visitors toward the entrance. This translucency is intentional—people inside the museum can see their community going about its business outside, and people outside can see visitors going about the gallery within (and thereby feel a vicarious connection with local art). Indeed, the emphasis of the structure is not so much on the photovoltaic array, the geothermal heating and cooling or the low-flow toilets (and waterless urinals!), but on showcasing the thriving—but largely unsung—regional artist community.

Part of Sears’ initial motivation was the question “If this is such an ‘artists’ haven’ (as the guide books told me), why wasn’t there a place where local art was on exhibit for the public?” While acknowledging the value of art shows at smaller, commercial galleries in the area, she contends, “A community that cares about art needs an art museum the same way a community that cares about literacy needs a public library—no matter how many bookstores might be nearby.”

One of the opening exhibits is of work by Bainbridge Island artist and children’s book illustrator Barbara Helen Berger, who agrees with Sears, “Art doesn’t have to be remote.” As for the tone her inaugural exhibit sets for the museum, she speculates, “My show may convey part of the museum’s aim: to be inviting and welcoming for everyone, including children and families.”

Greg Robinson, BIMA’s executive director and curator, points out that one of the significant local benefits of the museum is serving kids in the region—for whom taking a field trip to Seattle can be prohibitively complicated and expensive. “Having an art museum here increases the accessible and affordable options for schools in the Kitsap area,” he says. Sears adds that one of the boons of not charging an entrance fee is that it encourages people of all ages to stop by casually, making the viewing of art a regular part of everyday life. “I want kids and their families to feel comfortable just dropping in…to refresh their eyes and recharge their batteries,” she says.

Port Townsend–based sculptor Margie McDonald also has work in the first BIMA show, in the commanding Beacon Gallery, an aptly named space fronted by a two-story bank of windows that faces the ferry terminal and stands as a guidepost for disembarking passengers. Her “millipede-like” piece—a 30-foot long underwater scene made with recycled copper, yacht rigging wire and salmon trolling wire—will hang in the window. “Seattle is tough for someone like me who doesn’t want to go to the big city very much,” McDonald says. “I think there’s some excitement here in Port Townsend that this is ‘our museum.’ BIMA feels like it’s on ‘our side’ of the water.”

Sears believes the regional focus will foster what she calls the “OMG factor,” meaning the reaction, “OMG, that’s from here?” She hopes that, as a result, hometown visitors will support “their own” with even more vigor. “This is our art equivalent to the ‘eat locally’ movement,” she says.

Robinson is “slowly and deliberately” expanding BIMA’s permanent collection in line with the goal of being “an incubator and a launching pad for emerging local artists.” (Sears notes, “We are on record as having promised our donors that if most of the artists we exhibit have not achieved national—or world!—recognition in 50 years, we will be happy to give them their money back.”) But Robinson emphasizes that rather than dictating a perspective, he and his team are looking to the artists to reveal what it means to live in the region. “We’re not coming in as the experts,” he says, “we’re coming in as discoverers. We’re exploring stories that haven’t been told yet.”

Read article here:  http://www.seattlemag.com/article/bainbridge-island-gets-art-museum

Island Near Seattle To Open Rare LEED Gold Museum

by Randy Woods 

EARTH TECHNLING

By their very nature, art museums are tightly controlled environments. To preserve the fragile and precious artifacts inside, the temperature, humidity and amount of direct sunlight must be kept within strict tolerances at all times, even after hours. Because of these requirements, it’s rare for museums to be energy efficient compared to other green buildings of their size.

So, when the nearly completed Bainbridge Island Museum of Art (BIMA), near Seattle, announced recently that it had achieved LEED Gold status for its many energy conservation systems, the rest of the art world took notice that it is possible to be a steward of both the arts and the environment at the same time.

Located a half-hour ferry ride across Puget Sound from downtown Seattle, BIMA is scheduled to open its doors on June 14, featuring a collection of mostly locally produced art works from the Puget Sound region, as well as other traveling exhibits from around the United States.

The designer, Coates Design Architects, incorporated a number of sustainable aspects into the museum, including a geothermal energy system to heat and cool the building, solar panels to generate electricity, recycled building materials whenever possible, low-flow plumbing fixtures and a green roof to help absorb and reuse the abundant rainfall of the Pacific Northwest.

On the south side of the building, Coates also included a sweeping 28-foot-tall wall of curved glass, allowing for striking views of the interior. To protect the art hanging inside from potential sun damage and solar gain, the glass wall is hugged by an array of horizontal wooden louvers that can automatically open and close depending on the angle of the sun. In the gallery spaces, natural daylight is provided by three skylights on the the upper floor. This light is scattered by curved baffles underneath the skylights, which create an even, diffused glow throughout the interior.

BIMA will be the anchor tenant of the Island Gateway project, a group of high-end, mixed-use buildings, also designed by Coates.  The curved façade of BIMA will act as an entrance to an open plaza between the museum and the other Island Gateway buildings, which are within easy walking distance from the island’s ferry terminal.

Community Attraction Aims to be Washington State's first LEED Gold Certified Museum

Market Watch - The Wall Street Journal
March 21, 2013, 10:30 a.m. EDT

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, Wash., March 21, 2013 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Situated on a prominent corner of Bainbridge Island, Washington, across from the Seattle-Bainbridge Island ferry terminal, the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art (BIMA) is scheduled to open its doors on June 14th 2013. The museum will feature its collection of artworks from the Puget Sound region of the United States as well as traveling exhibits.

BIMA is the anchor tenant of the Island Gateway project, a high-end mixed-use development also designed by Coates Design Architects. The building's striking curved form opens up the plaza between the museum and its adjacent building, drawing visitors toward the entrance. "We wanted it to be accessible, approachable, inviting," says architect Matthew Coates.

The south side of the building has a skin that is comprised of 28' tall curved glass, offering a transparent view into the museum. Mounted lights will allow the museum to illuminate at night and act as a beacon that is visible from multiple vantages. Coates Design Architects created curved wood louvers to wrap around the outside of the glass to provide ample shade for the artwork. The louvers are automatically controlled by a light sensor that triggers them to open and close in response to the quantity of sunlight and the sun's movement. On the second, uppermost level of the building, three long strip skylights permit natural light into the main gallery space. Curved baffled light shelves float underneath the skylights, diffusing the light to create a pleasant ambiance.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold designation, certified by the US Green Building Council, is a challenging goal for museums as they are inherently energy-intensive due to such narrow tolerances in regard to humidity and temperature stability. In order to achieve this certification, the following features were included in BIMA's design: geothermal energy, daylighting control, solar panels, use of rapidly renewable and recycled materials, low-flow plumbing fixtures, and a vegetated roof garden.

Coates Design Architects specializes in sustainable design and green building techniques. The firm's managing partner, Matthew Coates, achieved international acclaim by winning the Cradle to Cradle (C2C) Home Design Competition in 2005. Recent achievements include the first LEED Platinum residence outside of the Seattle City limits, the LEED Silver Bainbridge Island Kid's Discovery Museum, and the Island Gateway development, targeted for LEED Silver.

SOURCE:  Coates Design Architects

http://rt.prnewswire.com/rt.gif?NewsItemId=SF80711&Transmission_Id=201303211030PR_NEWS_USPR_____SF80711&DateId=20130321

Art meets science at Bainbridge museum - KITSAP SUN

KITSAP SUN 

By Tad Sooter 

Posted March 15, 2013 at 7:12 p.m.

The new building taking shape in Winslow goes to great lengths (and depths) to increase efficiency.

 

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND — Some of the most interesting features of the new Bainbridge Island Museum of Art building begin 400 feet underground.

That’s how deep the deepest of its 14 geothermal wells are drilled, wells that will harness stable temperatures underground to help heat and cool the building. High above, a rooftop photovoltaic array will harvest solar energy while a second-story garden recycles rainwater. Rows of louvers along the curving glass front of the building will open and close automatically to let in light or block out glare.

Gilbert Dominguez works this week inside the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, which is taking shape in Winslow. The museum is scheduled to open June 14.

“It will be a reminder to visitors that this building is alive,” museum Executive Director Greg Robinson said. “It’s changing and adapting to the environment.”

The museum, now in its final phase of construction at Highway 305 and Winslow Way, is being built to showcase energy efficient design alongside Northwest artwork. The structure is expected to qualify for a gold rating under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, which awards points for energy conservation and use of recyclable materials among other categories. More than 90 percent of the construction materials used in the museum can be recycled at the end of the building’s predicted 100 year life span, architect Matthew Coates said.

All told, renewable energy will offset about one third of the museum’s energy needs. Coates said that figure is “significant,” given the demands of lighting, heating and climate control in a 20,000-square-foot museum.

“Museums are notoriously energy inefficient,” he said.

The green features will soon be put to the test. The museum recently announced a final $1.2 million fundraising push to close out its $15.6 million capital campaign. A grand opening is set for June 14.
As interesting as the design work was, Robinson said he is eager to finish construction and bring in the art.

“We didn’t just set out to build a building,” he said. “We set out to open a museum and a new cultural amenity.”

That quest began in earnest about three years ago when a board of directors formed and launched a capital campaign. The museum completed a first phase of construction 2011, which included an auditorium, classrooms and a small gallery. The spaces were made available for community events.
The full museum was expected to open in the summer of 2012. The date was pushed back a year as donations lagged.

Now fundraising and construction are on track for an early summer opening. Saws and hammers clamored inside the building during a hard-hat tour early this week.

The museum’s most prominent feature is the two-story curved glass facade, which opens a cutaway view of the museum’s interior. The design was the favorite among 12 presented to members of the public during planning meetings.

“I think it creates a graceful presence on the street,” Coates said.

Visitors who enter from the main Winslow Way entrance will be greeted by a reception space, bookended by a gift shop an a “bistro” dining area. The museum’s permanent art collection will rotate through a 1,000-square-foot gallery on the main floor.

A broad staircase leads to a second floor landing with a view of the new Waypoint park and a broad stretch of Winslow Way. The expanse of glass keeps the museum connected to the world around it, Coates said.

“Having a lot of transparency and allowing that connection was one of the most important parts of the design,” he said. “From the outside you’ll be able to see people inside experiencing art, and from the inside you’ll look out and see your community members.”

The second floor art experience begins with the “Beacon” gallery, sized for small solo artist shows. It leads to the museum’s main gallery, a 2,500-square-foot space for traveling exhibits. Movable walls will give curators flexibility to section out the room as needed. Behind the main exhibition room, another small gallery lined with glass cases will display three dimensional pieces and touchable artwork.

Several doors on the second floor open onto terrace overlooking Winslow Way. The patio is bare now, but will soon be outfitted with a rain garden courtesy of island gardeners George and David Lewis, of Little & Lewis fame.

“They’re doing a simple but very beautiful design,” Robinson said.

Other museum spaces are hidden from public view. In the basement, an archive room will store artwork when it’s not on display upstairs. The archive is climate controlled and secured against burglary.

“I like to tell people on tours that they’ll probably never see this room again,” museum Development Director Renate Raymond said.

The museum is still collecting pieces for its permanent display but plans to showcase a diverse assortment of contemporary art representing Puget Sound and West Sound. As for the temporary displays, Robinson said the museum sees itself as a “launching pad for new artists.”

“How wonderful it would be if in 20 years we’re borrowing work from another regional museum that came from an artist who we debuted for the first time,” he said.

Robinson expects to announce the museum’s first offering of programs and exhibits next month as the June opening nears. General admission to the museum will be free and exact hours have yet to be set.
The museum will operate in an “open house” format for the first six weeks after opening, meaning visitors can view exhibits and participate in workshops as they wish. After six weeks the museum will begin selling tickets for some of its lectures, classes and special events.

And after that, “we’re open for the next hundred years,” Robinson said.

Read more: http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2013/mar/15/art-meets-science-at-bainbridge-museum/?partner=RSS#ixzz2O0BpmyYa

 

Eagle Harbor Market Building - COMING SOON!

Exceptional ground level retail space available for lease along Winslow Way in the new Eagle Harbor Market Building.

Corner by ferry becomes welcoming spot for Bainbridge - KITSAP SUN

KITSAP SUN
By Tad Sooter
Posted February 27, 2013 at 6:40 p.m.

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND — A construction crew and volunteers put the final flourishes Wednesday on what will become Bainbridge Island’s most visible park.

Workers installed signs and fastened down benches along the serpentine walking boulevard above the ferry landing, while others raked gravel. All their labor was being donated, something that’s become the norm for The Waypoint project.

“Pretty much everyone has volunteered everything,” said park supporter Bruce Weiland, neatly summing up the two-year effort that brought The Waypoint into existence.

The gateway park opens Friday on a 1-acre lot wedged into the bustling southwest corner of Winslow Way and Highway 305.

The property is jointly owned by the city and Kitsap Transit and will be managed by the Bainbridge park district, but credit for the creation of the park rests largely with a committee of volunteer organizers.

The Bainbridge Island Park Task Force spearheaded the planning, funding and building of The Waypoint, transforming a vacant and contaminated property into a public amenity. Organizer Jim Chapel estimates 700 people lent time, expertise or money to the effort.

“Here’s an example, that doesn’t happen often, of an entire community coming together to make something happen,” Chapel said at the site Wednesday.

The Waypoint was a unifying project in part because it addressed a glaring need. The property is located at one of the island’s busiest intersections and across the street from the new Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, now in the final phase of construction. Yet the high-profile property sat vacant since a gas station closed on the site in 1989.

The city and Kitsap Transit bought the land in 2005, with interest in widening the highway, building a bus terminal and opening park space. Budget constraints put the brakes on those plans.

The property gathered weeds. A chain-link fence around the lot was used to hang banners and painted signs. Ideas for development were floated and sunk over the years.
\
In the meantime, nearly every island resident and visitor to Bainbridge passed by the lot while traveling to and from the ferry. What they saw was a “postindustrial eyesore,” Weiland said.

“It was already the gateway anyway,” he said. “It was just ugly.”

That thought ran through Chapel’s mind in 2011 when he became stuck in traffic while driving off the ferry and had a few minutes to revel in the ungainliness of the property. The longtime islander decided to pitch the idea of a gateway park to the City Council and recruited the help of Bainbridge Island Museum of Art board member Steve Davis. Chapel and Davis secured the blessing of the city to explore options and joined with Weiland to create the park task force. The city gave the group two clear directives from the start.

“They said, you can’t cost us money and you can’t do anything environmentally harmful,” Weiland recalled.

The second directive proved trickiest. Fuel leaks from the Unocal gas station left contamination soaked into the soil below the property. Unocal hauled away 6,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil and capped the site with clean fill but testing showed some petroleum chemicals remained. The state Department of Ecology added the property to its hazardous site register in 2008.

Scientists and community members were concerned contamination from the site was leaching into an adjacent creek and Eagle Harbor, and worried construction could stir up contaminants locked underground.

The park plan earned official approval from the City Council and Kitsap Transit board in early 2012, only after the agencies were convinced it could be built without significant excavation. The effort received a boost when a series of groundwater tests in 2012 showed contaminants were declining and not migrating off the site. The city and Kitsap Transit have agreed to continue testing in 2013.

The park task force enjoyed a groundswell of support from islanders from the beginning of the effort. The group quickly swelled to 60 members and a series of public planning meetings were well attended. The Bainbridge Rotary signed on to manage the project and renowned island architect Johnpaul Jones volunteered to design the park.

Fundraising also was a grass-roots effort. Rotary launched the campaign with an $80,000 grant, and other large donations, combined with more than 500 individual contributions, fleshed out the $360,000 project budget. A large sign at The Waypoint will recognize donors.

Chapel estimates the project received another $170,000 in labor and services. PHC Construction and other contractors donated labor and equipment, while island groups like the park district and Bainbridge Historical Museum offered support. Bloedel Reserve sent down a squad of volunteer landscapers to install plantings on four occasions, devoting 500 work hours to the site.

“And that’s just what one group did,” Chapel said.

Construction began in September and continued through the winter. The completed park features a broad walking corridor and a curved stone wall, surrounded by raised landscaping. Historical signs, benches and lighting punctuate the walkway.

Jones said managing expectations given the constraints of the property was the most difficult part of the design.

“There were a lot of demands on that site,” Jones said during a recent interview, adding the key was to keep the vision simple. “It’s a welcoming place, it’s not a park.”

Kitsap Transit board member and City Councilwoman Anne Blair said The Waypoint reflects the inclusive effort behind its creation.

“It’s a place that makes tangible the welcoming spirit that exists in the community,” she said.

OFFICIAL OPENING
WHAT: Grand opening
WHEN: 11:20 a.m. Friday
WHERE: The Waypoint at Highway 305 and Winslow Way

Read article here: http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2013/feb/27/corner-by-ferry-becomes-welcoming-spot-for/#ixzz2MDpwArmN

Creating an Art Museum