It’s not every day a city is able to take a historic 1850s landmark and retrofit it so that it may become a beautiful “new” home for historic collections. That’s exactly what’s about to take place atop the hill at Norfolk Street beside the city’s much-loved Church of our Lady. The New Guelph Civic Museum, located in the Loretto Convent, will be a cultural flagship for the City of Guelph.

Highlights:

• Approximately 30,000 sq ft - twice the size of the current location
• Larger children’s gallery
• Research room
• Appropriate storage for collection of 30,000 items and growing
• Prominent location in the downtown
• Designed to meet LEED Silver Accreditation

View site plan for new Civic Museum (PDF)

On Monday, November 30, 2009 City Council approved awarding the construction tender to Harbridge & Cross of Concord, ON.  The official launch of construction took place on Friday, January 22 and the general contractor mobilized the following week.  The final demolition work that needed to be done has been completed and underpinning of the foundation is underway.  Completion of the construction project is May 2011 with installation of exhibits and moving of the collections to follow.  A grand opening will be held in mid-2011.

This is an adaptive reuse project designed by The Ventin Group Architects. The total cost of the project is $12.7 million with $5 million from the Municipal Infrastructure Investment Intiative, Province of Ontario, and $1.5 million from Cultural Spaces Canada, Department of Canadian Heritage.

The final piece of the funding is a $500,000 local fundraising campaign.  The campaign is chaired by John Valeriote and members are Martin Bosch, Ian Brown, Susan Brown, Ken Hammill, Gil Stelter, Murray Taylor, Morris Twist, and Museum Director Katherine McCracken.  The late Hugh Guthrie is Honourary Chair of the Campaign.  Donations can be made here online, at the Service Guelph desk at City Hall, or at Guelph Civic Museum, 6 Dublin Street South, Guelph, ON  N1H 4L5.

Of special interest is a Family Tree that will acknowledge donors at giving levels of $1000, $2500, $5000, $7500, and $10,000.  Families can purchase a “leaf” on the tree and include their family name and the year that they came to Guelph.