Czech museum officials announce opening date

CEDAR RAPIDS – With the exterior shape essentially complete, work is progressing at a feverish pace inside the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library to reach its opening date goal.

During a media hard-hat tour Wednesday, museum officials announced that the expanded museum will open to the public on July 14, 2012.

“We've had a great fall for construction – we feel we deserve that,” past board Chairman Gary Rozek said, citing the rain-delayed move of the flood-damaged museum earlier this year. “We've been able to catch up with the help of (general contractor) Rinderknect and the weather.”

The 1,740-ton building was relocated 480 feet to higher ground this summer after being inundated during the Floods of 2008 at its site along the Cedar River at 30 16

^th

Ave. SW.

Moving crews were plagued by almost daily rain.

The expanded museum sits on a parking garage, 11 feet higher than its previous elevation, or three feet above the 2008 flood level.

Rozek said 70 to 80 construction workers are now on-site on a daily basis to keep the $16.5 million building project on schedule.

The addition that remains under construction will bring the building to 50,000-square-feet.

Navigating around boards, ladders and electrical cords, Rozek and Board Chairwoman Sue Olson pointed out the new space to the noisy buzz of construction equipment.

Highlights include a 55-seat theatre for films and lectures; a 7,200-square-foot permanent exhibition room with 26-foot-high ceilings and a 5,500-square-foot library where the public can conduct genealogy searches and other research in the museum's archives.

Olson said a $2.5 million permanent exhibit, designed by outside staff, will feature interactive, high-tech displays about freedom and the immigration story of Czech and Slovak Americans.

The new Heritage Hall in the expanded museum will hold 250 to 400 people. Previously, about 60 people could fit in one of the museum meeting rooms.

Olson noted that reservations for wedding receptions and other events will be taken beginning in January. That space could be available beginning in August 2012, she said.

The immigrant home, still along the river bank, will be lifted and moved after Thanksgiving next to the planned terrace of the museum.

Rosek said the majority of staff now in offices at the former Kosek Building, 87 Sixteenth Ave. SW, will be moved to the second floor of the expanded museum. The space in Czech Village might be leased, he said.

The museum raised $25 million for flood recovery, which included $10 million from I-JOBS and a $2.9 million Vision Iowa Community Attraction and Tourism grant.

Rozek said the facility is being built with an eye toward LEED certification, including geothermal heating and cooling and solar panels.

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