As part of the memorial’s newly renovated lower level, the Memorial Bergman Family Gallery features 4,000 sq ft of storage, including a 190-ft coastline of window cases displaying artifacts that were previously stored in closed back-of-house storage facilities. This space allows guests to observe curators and archivists preparing artifacts for display in one of the world’s largest WWI collections.

This $3.7-million project faced a hard completion date so the team prioritized early procurement and streamlined project management, successfully completing work on time and within budget in May 2023.

Originally built in the 1930s, the memorial’s museum was designed as a circular space with curved walls that were not built to be exactly concentric. But project scope included construction of a staircase leading from the ground floor to the basement—except the outside wall did not match the same curvature as the inside wall. This meant every measurement had to be extremely precise, especially with the ceiling tiles that match the curve of the stairwell from above. To overcome this obstacle, the team created a template of each piece to be cut, ensuring accuracy of the installation.

To create the coastline shelving in the open storage space, the contractor designed and crafted one-of-a-kind shelving units in its prebuild facility. Customized shelving is temporarily displaying the museum’s vast collection of WWI artifacts as the museum archivists prepare the pieces to be shown within other exhibits.