91视频

While searching for a space to convert into a modern museum for mid-century automobiles, developers discovered a former Chrysler dealership visible from Interstate 5. The tilt-up concrete building also had an ideal layout to accommodate exhibits, said Tony Thacker, executive director of the World of Speed educational museum.

鈥淔or a building that wasn’t designed specifically for that purpose, it’s incredibly museum-friendly,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t already has an entrance or lobby area and it has a huge, open gallery space.鈥�

However, converting that 85,000-square-foot building into a state-of-the-art museum space required some major changes. The $10 million renovation is eliminating all remnants of the car dealership so that up to 100 cars from the 1950s and 60s can be displayed. The challenge for the project team was determining how to display the cars and associated artifacts safely, and make the visitor experience stand out for car aficionados and greenhorns alike.

鈥淲e essentially had to take this concrete shoebox building and repurpose it into a mid-century, modern time capsule,” said Jean-Pierre Veillet, president, founder and creative director of Siteworks, the project’s design-build firm. 鈥淲e had to work with a very simple structure and turn it into something more engaging.鈥�

Siteworks started by removing three support columns from the building’s interior and replacing them with a 50,000-pound, 100-foot-long arched bow truss to support a new roof. Removal of the columns created a more open gallery space able to accommodate up to 3,000 people and provide additional space for cars.

Also, failing, leaky windows were replaced with roughly 12,000 square feet of double-paned, glazed ones. The ultraviolet, translucent glass will provide better natural light for exhibits, Veillet said.

鈥淲e tore out all the windows and replaced them with a mid-century, modern look that is very vertical,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t will engage people from the freeway.鈥�

Other elements include a cantilevered canopy system that extrudes out from the entryway and environmental graphics around the exterior that replicate giant racing stripes, Veillet said.

A heating, ventilation and air conditioning system is being installed, and LED lighting will appear around the building, Veillet said. After the project is completed, Siteworks will apply for Energy Trust of Oregon cash incentives tied to projected energy savings.

The building will have multiple technology features to make the museum more secure. The project team consulted with Las Vegas casino operators to create a security system that will keep an unobtrusive eye on vehicles and artifacts, Thacker said. Because of multiple redundancies, a would-be thief could cut a wire and another part of the system would back it up.

鈥淲e are confident that we have put together a system that will protect the safety of those cars,鈥� Veillet said. 鈥淚f you chopped off an arm on this system, it would grow another one.鈥�

Also, a temperature-controlled archive room will be installed with a fire-suppression system designed to protect valuable artifacts, including old magazines, race suits, crash helmets and historic photographs, Thacker said.

Interactive features include a 鈥渕oving wallpaper鈥� system that will project images from eight different cameras onto a screen. That will allow World of Speed to show racecars moving across a 160-foot long screen. It also will be used for showing drive-in movies, because the space will allow up to 20 vehicles to enter the building from off-site. In addition, simulators will replicate the speed and physical sensation of what it is like to drive in a NASCAR race.

Several exhibits will be installed in the project’s final phase, Thacker said. One is a 鈥淲all of Sound鈥� exhibit explaining the relationship between cars and music; Chuck Berry and ZZ Top will be among the artists featured.

The museum is scheduled to open next spring, Thacker said.

World of Speed

Location: 27490 S.W. 95th Ave., Wilsonville

Owner: Marie Lamfrom Charitable Foundation

Architect/general contractor: Siteworks Design | Build

Engineer: Grummel Engineering LLC

Landscape architect: Place Studio LLC

Electrical contractor: Capitol Electric Co.

Project cost: $10 million

Construction start date: July 2013

Anticipated completion date: December 2014