Unusual and Ambitious Flood Recovery Plan at Cedar Rapids Museum

By Dave Franzman

Tools

By Becky Ogann

Story Created: Nov 12, 2009 at 12:47 PM CST

Story Updated: Nov 12, 2009 at 5:38 PM CST

CEDAR RAPIDS - The National Czech and Slovak Museum leaders in Cedar Rapids unveiled a new recovery and rebuilding plan Thursday morning.

Water swamped the museum in June of 2008. Insurance will not allow its use as a museum where it sits now. The new plan is not to demolish, but to pick it up and move it.

A greatly expanded museum will go up next door, at the site of the city's old Riverside Roundhouse Farmers Market. But museum leaders discovered great resistance to tearing down the existing museum, or using it simply as a rental hall.

The new plan calls for a Washington, Iowa company to be paid $750,000 to pick up the existing 16,000 square foot building, and move it about 150 feet, where it will become part of a new complex, elevated at least three feet above the high water mark.

"We understand we'll lose 4-5 course of brick, that's 4-5 course, and a steel beam structure will be placed underneath it, and the entire structure and it'll be moved in one piece," said Gary Rozek, museum board chair.

There are no contracts yet, but the idea is to prepare the new site, and move the existing museum some time next year. Work would start on the new construction in 2011, and the new complex would open in 2012.

As for finances, museum leaders put the overall figure at $25-million, with I-Jobs guaranteeing $10-million. The hope is the moving plan will be popular, and make fundraising even easier.