St. Joseph Indian School Alumni Center and Museum Archive

Architecture Incorporated, in coordination with display consultant and outfitter Split-Rock Studios, designed the St. Joseph’s Indian School Alumni Center and Museum Archive Storage. This 15,000-square-foot facility has approximately 5,000 square feet of museum artifact storage. Issues considered for the storage portion of this facility were: temperature and humidity controls, low level lighting, air quality control, water and fire damage plans, and theft and vandalism prevention. Because of our Midwestern climate, a humidity level of 30 to 50 percent is difficult to achieve, but by using a double wall system, the air flow can help to control the humidity factor as well as the temperature. Certain levels of light can oxidize materials, so a low light level was requested. We specified a mechanically filtered system to reduce the amount of pollutants in the air. A quarantined room was designed to be the first point of entrance for all artifacts so that biological agents (mold, rodents, and insects) are not introduced into the storage room.