Museum of Vancouver

Case Study

In 2010, the Museum of Vancouver realized the need for additional storage space was required to provide protection for stored artifacts as well as allow room for growth. In total, the museum needed to store close to an additional 40,000 items including pieces from the new Legacy Collection arriving after the 2010 Olympics.

Mobile Shelving:

By adding 9 carriages 44 feet long and reconfiguring the layout, the complete mobile shelving solution now features 26 rows of shelving, 14 feet of flat tray cabinets, over 90′ of hanging garment storage, 26 feet of rolled textile storage, and 190 custom trays for very small artifacts.

To protect the museum collections, our storage designer selected low VOC plywood for the sub floor that reduces off gassing. The glue used for installing the tiling was water based and environmentally friendly.

Static Shelving:

Static shelving space was maximized by building extra shelving around the existing concrete building columns instead of just having shelving between the columns. Customer’s existing 336 lineal feet of shelving was retrofitted to meet project specifications and upgraded to meet seismic requirements. Hi-Cube’s storage designer was able to reduce costs by capitalizing on the ability to re-purpose the museum’s existing shelving.

ArtRack:

An ActivRAC mobilized industrial racking system was selected to store heavy and/or oversize objects. The system included mechanically assisted rows with adjustable gear ratios for ease of movement. Four ActivRAC carriages provide heavy-duty storage and easy movement for large artifacts.

Custom design storage with limited budget and space:

This project was completed quickly and with very limited disruption to the day-to-day operation of the museum. A phased project plan allowed museum personnel to move collections to completed storage sections while the next system installation was being finished.

Hi-Cube took on all of the responsibilities including architectural design, engineering, code consulting and project management. By working with the museum, well-planned project plans and drawings were completed that considered unique collection move requirements. Consulting, project management, and permit coordination were all handled as part of the complete Hi-Cube fixed price contract.

Download the full Case Study with before and after pictures here