PROJECT BACKGROUND

A 7,000 sq. ft. red brick Georgian style structure,

the original museum building at the Missouri Botan-

ical Garden dates back more than 150 years. It is be-

lieved to be one of the earliest buildings erected in

the botanical garden founded by English philanthropist

Henry Shaw in 1859 and is the only structure on the

property not to have been significantly altered since

Shaw’s time. Originally used as a library, research lab,

lecture hall and herbarium that at one time housed

the garden’s early collection of over 60,000 dried

plant specimens, the building became obsolete once

the garden outgrew the museums available space.

Prior to the renovation completed in the spring of 2018,

the building had been completely vacant since 1982.

1000 Clark Ave Saint Louis Missouri 63102 T 314-645-4128 F 314-645-4128 www.mcclureeng.com

McClure Engineering | Project Profile

MUSEUM BUILDING AND ADDITION

MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN

ARCHITECT ON RECORD: CHRISTNER

SQ. FT.: 7,000 sq. ft. + 2,600 sq. ft.

CONSTRUCTION COSTS: $5,850,000.00

YEAR COMPLETED: 2018

1000 Clark Ave Saint Louis Missouri 63102 T 314-645-4128 F 314-645-4128 www.mcclureeng.com

McClure Engineering | Project Profile

Although structurally sound, the building required several updates to operate as a museum displaying the garden’s collection of art and botanical drawings.

PROJECT DELIVERABLES

McClure Engineering first conducted a feasibility study to evaluate the potential of a geothermal well-field to support the heating and cooling plants for the renovated museum and new addition. This study also included serv-ing the Administration Building and Tower Grove House.

After the geothermal study was completed, the renovation of the Museum Building commenced. Throughout the pro-cess, McClure Engineering worked with The Missouri Bo-tanical Garden and historic conservators to ensure that all renovation standards were upheld to maintain compliance with State and Federal Historic Rehabilitation rules and guidelines, as required by the building’s status on the Na-tional Register of Historic Places. The main challenge was ensuring the HVAC, electrical and A/V systems comple-mented the historic architecture without compromising it. To maintain the building’s historic integrity, McClure pro-vided a water source VRF HVAC that utilized fan coil units as well as a dedicated outdoor air unit with equipment lo-cated in peripheral spaces. Additional updates included re-placement of all fenestrations, insulating exterior walls, and constructing new walls to reroute mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems to better showcase murals that had been obstructed by a drop ceiling installed decades earlier.

McClure also designed a new state of the art A/V system that would make the renovated museum functional for

meetings and multi-media events. Visible system com-ponents included loudspeakers and a projection system that were integrated into the building architecture to minimize their visual impact and preserve important aes-thetic features of the space. Acoustic measures were taken to lower the background noise created by HVAC equipment, increasing speech intelligibility for both live microphones and pre-recorded program material.

In addition to the renovation of the historic museum build-ing, McClure provided MEP design for the 2,600 sq. ft. modern addition, now serving as an entry point to the mu-seum. The addition includes an elevator and stairs for mu-seum access, ADA compliant zero entry restrooms, a water fountain and a bottle filling station. Because the addition would be connected to a protected historic structure, compliance with State and Federal Historic Rehabilitation rules and guidelines were again necessary. Guidelines stipu-lated that the new addition needed to compliment the his-toric building without mimicking it. Once it was designed, it was McClure’s task to provide the new structure with MEP/FP systems that were transparent to the public view. This was accomplished by utilizing very small back of house areas to locate electric and domestic water system boil-ers, water cooled condensing units and DX fan coil units.