QUICK FACTS

Expansion of the UO Museum of Natural and Cultural History:

Summary: A $9.55 million expansion of the museum begins this summer with a 7,000-square-foot wing housing a new collections center for Oregon's ancient treasures. The project will double the footprint of the 21-year-old main museum building at 1680 East 15th Ave., Eugene, and bring its anthropological research and curation facilities into a single museum complex.

Phase 1: New collections wing and public galleria, $2.8 million, mainly funded by the 2005 federal highway-spending bill, authorized at the request of U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), chair of the federal highways and transit subcommittee. About $600,000 is from private gifts and state funds.

Phase 2: Creation of new exhibit hall, $2 million (private gifts)
Fundraising is underway to remodel the museum's existing collections vault into a new exhibit hall for rotating displays focused on the geological and natural history of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest.

Phase 3: Archaeological research center, $4.75 million (federal, state and private sources)
A new research wing will frame the south and east sides of the building to provide modern lab facilities for museum researchers and staff members currently housed in a checkerboard fashion across the campus.

Timeline (projected)

• Aug. 6, 2008: Groundbreaking ceremonies

• Fall 2008: Construction begins on collections wing and public galleria

• May 2009: Completion of new collections center

• 2010: Work begins on Phase 2, new exhibit hall

• 2011: Grand opening, new exhibit hall

• 2012: Groundbreaking anticipated for Phase 3, new research wing

Overview: The museum, a center for interdisciplinary research and education, is the state-mandated repository for artifacts and specimens found on public lands in Oregon. Over 110 years, it has developed internationally renowned collections of archaeological and anthropological objects from all over the world.

Museum staff: 50

Volunteers: 100

Visitors per year: 20,000, including off-site archaeological digs and public events

Annual research grants and contracts related to transportation: $2.6 million (five-year average)

Museum Milestones:

1876 Thomas Condon becomes the University of Oregon's first professor of geology and natural sciences, bringing with him a treasury of fossil and rock collections from Oregon's John Day Fossil Beds that would become the nucleus of today's museum.

1935 Oregon Legislature creates the Oregon State Museum of Anthropology (OSMA) at the UO to house and protect the state's anthropological and archaeological collections.

1936 Oregon's higher education board establishes the UO Museum of Natural History, an umbrella repository for the OSMA and anthropological, biological, historical, geological and other natural history collections owned by the state.

1970s State and federal agencies begin contracting with the University of Oregon to have the museum archaeologists provide “rescue archaeology” services for road projects to ensure compliance with state and federal laws.

1987 Grand opening of the museum's existing building, a 10,000-square-foot facility built at a cost of about $1 million with federal and private gifts.

1996 Completion of the museum's 1,762-square-foot north addition at a cost of $250,000 (private gifts and university funds) allows core administrative staff members to move from a temporary trailer into the building.

1999 Oregon Legislature authorizes construction of a curation storage project (new collections center) as existing facilities near capacity.

2001 Congress directs $50,000 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services FY02 account to audit the museum collections, update existing records and plan for a new curation facility.

2004 Grand opening, "Oregon--Where Past is Present," a $1 million set of permanent exhibits that allow visitors to walk through 15,000 years of Northwest cultural history and 100 million years of geologic history.

2005 Name changes to UO Museum of Natural and Cultural History to reflect the scope of its collections and its mission as a center of interdisciplinary research, education and community engagement. Congress authorizes federal highway funds for a new collections facility.

2007 100th anniversary of the Thomas Condon Collection, a growing resource of more than 500,000 fossils and other specimens from Oregon, the Pacific Northwest and the world.

2008 The first phase of a planned $9.55 million expansion, a new collections wing, begins. Fundraising for a new exhibit hall begins. The Oregon University System approves the UO's request to seek authorization from the state legislature to seek funds from state, federal and private sources for an archaeological research wing.