THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 16, 1994 TAG: 9409150190
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: COVER STORY
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 144 lines
GIANT EARTH MOVERS have been chewing up sod along the east bank of Owl Creek since early August, gouging out space for a $30 million addition to the Virginia Marine Science Museum, the city's top tourist draw.
The project, which will be officially launched today at 3 p.m. by Gov. George Allen in ground-breaking ceremonies, is to be completed in 1996 and has been at least five years in the planning.
The museum, which opened in 1986, will have tripled in size - from 40,000 to 120,000 square feet - and will include:
A 30,000-square-foot east wing that will house a 350-seat IMAX theater with a six-story-high screen to view specially filmed natural history and science movies. The structure also will house a temporary exhibits area, office space and a cafeteria-style restaurant.
A 35,000-square-foot north wing that will house three aquariums, including a 300,000-gallon tank that replicates aquatic and plant life of the Norfolk Canyon, a deep-sea depression about 60 miles off the Virginia coast.
A separate 20,000-square-foot building at the south end of a 45-acre tract that will house marsh exhibits, a live river otter exhibit and an aviary that contains birds native to local marshlands.
A half-mile marsh trail connecting museum buildings at the north and south ends of the property, which will feature nature exhibits at strategic points.
A live seal tank at the museum entrance, replacing the concrete waterfall that now greets visitors arriving off General Booth Boulevard.
Original plans have been altered by practicality, said C. Mac Rawls, museum director.
For instance, a porpoise tank and a shark tank have given way to a turtle tank and a Norfolk Canyon tank, which will include sharks in its aquatic display.
Porpoises require a very big tank and lots of money to maintain, while turtles do not, Rawls explained.
Sharks will be a part of the Norfolk Canyon exhibit, along with other types of fish and vegetation.
Part of the exhibit will be a replica of a wrecked ship and a mock submersible, allowing museum patrons to get a fish-eye view of the goings-on deep under the Atlantic surface.
General contractor and low bidder on the project at $22.5 million was W.M. Jordan of Newport News, the same company that built Norfolk's $52 million Nauticus, the Virginia Air & Space Museum and the addition to the Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters.
The estimated cost going into construction was about $35 million, said Rawls, with $30 million earmarked for actual building and $5 million for museum exhibits.
Construction costs will be financed through the Tourism Growth Investment Fund, a special revenue pool established by the City Council several years ago to underwrite the cost of major projects like the museum expansion, the expansion of the Pavilion Convention Center, a new 20,000-seat amphitheater, ongoing resort streetscape improvements and the construction of at least five new public golf courses.
The $5 million for exhibits will come from donations, said Rawls, who proudly points out that $2 million already has been pledged for exhibits.
Opening for the revamped museum will be made in stages in 1996. ``We'll kind of present it like a three-act play,'' he said.
Act one will be the opening in the winter of the marsh and aviary building. Act two will be the opening in the spring of the IMAX building and the third act and ``grand finale'' will see the opening of the last addition.
When all three sections are opened for business, the existing structure will be closed for six months for renovations.
The white stucco marine science museum, as it now stands, contains exhibit, classroom and office space and a 50,000-gallon tank featuring fish and marine life found near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.
It opened June 14, 1986, at a cost of $8.2 million. Since then, several million visitors have passed through its portals at a clip of about 1,000 per day year-round. Rawls easily rattles off attendance figures for the past three years from memory: 323,000 in 1993; 330,000 in 1992 and 319,000 in 1991.
The gate for 1994 may be skewed somewhat by capricious acts of Mother Nature, he said.
``It seemed to rain about mid-afternoon every day in July and it definitely affected our attendance,'' Rawls observed. ``People didn't want to come out in the late afternoons. They apparently just wanted to stay home to watch TV.''
While there is no official clearinghouse to keep tabs on attendance at state museums, Rawls - through his own diligent telephone research - has concluded that the marine science museum is one of the busiest - if not THE busiest - in Virginia.
``The way I've said it, is we are one of the highest in attendance among Virginia museums; also in revenues produced,'' Rawls says cautiously.
Although Nauticus, Norfolk's shiny new waterfront maritime center, has grabbed a major share of media attention since it opened June 1, Rawls insists there is no rivalry between the two facilities.
``I think both of us will add reasons to come into this part of Virginia,'' he said. ``I wish them all the success in the world. We've made a continual effort to make sure we don't duplicate each other.''
While the marine science museum started off with a bang in 1986, the Nauticus opening was marked by modest attendance, which has since gained some momentum.
The marine science museum has come a long way since 1973 when it was a mere gleam in the eyes of committee members appointed to study the feasibility of building a small, general-nature center for Beach public schools.
Three years later, consultant and eventual designer E. Verner Johnson of Boston suggested a museum focused on plant and animal life found in and around the Virginia coastline.
Johnson's vision became a reality in the form of what now stands on the banks of Owl Creek, along General Booth Boulevard, a mile south of the resort strip.
Today, eight years after it opened its doors, the museum stands as a monument to the perseverance of Rawls, a former high school principal who became its director in 1979.
Rawls started out in a cluttered municipal office several blocks from the resort beach and slowly gathered a staff and enough local support to build the museum.
Once the project was finished, he and his staff returned to the drawing board, along with Johnson, to produce bigger, grander plans for the facility.
The huge earth movers now at work on the museum property are playing out the first stage of those plans. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
GROUNDBREAKING
A ground-breaking ceremony for the expansion of the Virginia
Marine Science Museum is planned at 3 p.m. today. Gov. George Allen
will be on hand for the event. The museum is at 717 General Booth
Blvd.
Staff photos by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
The museum, which opened in 1986, will triple in size from 40,000 to
120,000 square feet. This model is on display at the museum.
General contractor on the $22.5 million project on General Booth
Boulevard is W.M. Jordan of Newport News, the same company that
built Norfolk's $52 million Nauticus, the Virginia Air & Space
Museum and the addition to the Children's Hospital of The King's
Daughters.
ABOVE: The opening of the expanded museum will be conducted ``like a
three-act play,'' said C. Mac Rawls, museum director. It will be
done in stages. LEFT: People view the museum's current aquarium. A
35,000-square-foot north wing will house three aquariums, including
a 300,000-gallon tank.
by CNB