Building a Museum: This Is Not a Manual

Building a Museum is a comprehensive guide designed to assist museum professionals in navigating the complex process of planning, designing, and constructing a museum.

In it, seasoned design professionals from the award-winning integrated design firm SmithGroup condense their decades of experience guiding numerous cultural institutions through successful projects, emphasizing best practices in organizing a capital project and offering suggestions to keep projects moving toward completion. Building a Museum is a user-friendly tool for museum leaders to easily understand every aspect of the building process and includes intuitive graphics and a handy glossary for common terms. It encourages readers to rethink the traditional approaches and embrace forward-thinking and collegial strategies that could revolutionize their projects. Collaboration and inclusivity in the process is encouraged, with an emphasis on the importance of building a strong network and leveraging professional connections.

Building a Museum draws on the authors' decade of conducting workshops on the museum capital project process, refining their content based on feedback from over 300 museum leaders, board members, administrators, curators, and facilities professionals. The book aims to demystify the planning and design process, making it accessible and practical for museum professionals at any stage of their project.