Completion of the Gregg Museum addition has been delayed due to weather related events and an unexpected granite rock layer. Construction that was scheduled to be complete by mid-July is now estimated to be finished by late September or early October, assuming no further weather-related delays.
The Gregg Museum of Art & Design is an NC State art museum with more than 34,000 pieces. Originally located in Talley Student Union prior to the renovations, the museum will find a permanent home in the chancellor’s former residence by Pullen Park once the new addition is complete.
The addition will add roughly 15,000 square feet to the museum and is expected to be open to the public by March 2017.
Although construction was originally expected to be complete by mid-July of 2016, unexpected delays have pushed the completion date back.
“We are behind schedule because of all the rain over the course of the fall,” said Roger Manley, director of the Gregg Museum. “We had nearly two and a half times the normal rain during October, November and December.”
In addition to heavy rain, an unexpected rock layer slowed construction even further.
“When they were digging the foundation they ran into a seam of solid granite that no one expected,” Manley said. “They had done some drilling before for core sampling but somehow the drills, despite being evenly spaced, missed detecting this thick layer of rock in this area.”
According to Manley, it took a couple of weeks to remove the rock so that the concrete foundation could be poured. Additionally, when heavy tornado-spawning storms passed through North Carolina last week, construction was delayed further as high winds made working conditions dangerous.
Although the new construction completion estimate is for late September, Manley believes it could be pushed back further due to future rain or whether or not there will be hurricanes.
“There are all sorts of ways for the process to slow down,” Manley said. “The day we had those tornadoes, they couldn’t work with the winds they had; it becomes dangerous for cranes to pick up things in the air with high winds. I think it will get done sometime between late September and early December. It could be anywhere in that range. It’s just really hard to predict.”
Although the delays cost time, NC State and the Gregg Museum do not have to pay the construction company extra for the time. The company currently working on the Gregg Museum addition is HM Kern, based in Greensboro, and has constructed other buildings for NC State in the past.
“The delays don’t affect things on our end, but the people doing the building don’t like it because they have to pay their employees longer, so it’s in their own best interest to work as frequently as they can,” Manley said.
Although the Gregg Museum is currently without a permanent place to display the collection until the construction is complete, the museum continues to host exhibitions around NC State, such as the D. H. Hill library.
The Gregg Museum will also be doing an exhibition in Charlotte starting March 23 called “The House that Modernism Built” at the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art. The Gregg Museum will be loaning 80 pieces of furniture, contributing to a large portion of the exhibit.
In addition, the museum sees several classes a week ranging from anthropology to design as students and instructors come to look at and study artifacts.
“We have classes use the museum several times during the week,” Manley said. “It varies from semester to semester, sometimes it’s classes from religious studies who want to look at Buddhist or Muslim artifacts; all sorts of professors use it for one reason or another and that’s one of the main things we do.”
Students expressed enthusiasm toward the nearing completion of the museum construction.
“I think it’s a good idea for NC State to focus on the arts. Even though NC State is a land-grant university, arts have a definite impact here,” said Luke Lahay, a junior studying business administration. “I think the Gregg Museum expansion would be a great addition to our university.”
Other students see the museum as a way to have fun over the weekend.
“I think the art scene is up and coming here and the more places the better to have for artists to have an outlet to express their work,” said Taylor Rogan, a senior studying accounting. “Plus it gives students in particular something that’s relatively inexpensive and free to go to. As a college student, things can get expensive to do, and an art museum is a great thing to do for free or little cost on a Saturday afternoon.”
Construction currently in progress for the Gregg Museum addition at the Chancellor's residence. Due to delays, construction is expected to be complete by late September or early October of 2016, and the museum is expected to be open to the public by March 2017
