New Tacoma Art Museum Set to Break Ground

TACOMA, WA-Work on this city’s new Museum district will begin next week when ground is ceremoniously broken for the new Tacoma Art. When completed, sometime in early 2003, the facility at Hood and Pacific Avenue will replace the current museum at 12th and Pacific.

TAM will contain 50,000 sf, with more than 12,000 sf of galleries wrapped around a 2,000-sf Mist Moss Garden. Museum executive director Janeanne Upp tells GlobeSt other public areas will total about 4,000 sf, including a café, store and space for hands-on arts activities and educational programs, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Resource Center. The remainder of the museum’s space is earmarked for storage, operations and administration.

Nearly $23 million of a targeted $25 million has been raised, says Upp. While an exact estimate for the construction cost has not been announced, Upp says the museum expects to release that figure soon. The general contractor is Hoffman Construction of Seattle, and the architect is Antoine Predock of Albuquerque and Los Angeles.