Museum site's flaws delay opening till '10

— The opening of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art has been delayed until sometime in 2010 because of problems encountered during foundation work, project officials said Friday.

When Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton and the Walton Family Foundation announced plans for the museum in 2005, the target date was May 2009.

Expectations for the museum's opening were later adjusted to late 2009, its executive director, Bob Workman, said Friday morning during a media tour of the construction site.

Workman wouldn't give a firm date for the opening.

Excavation is complete and foundation work has begun. The museum's buildings will be constructed in a valley bordered by forested hillsides. Moshe Safdie and Associates of Boston is de-signing the museum, with Safdie as the primary architect.

Workers never know how solid the bedrock is for a project until its excavation, Workman said. Museum and construction officials said they had hoped the excavation work - which included removal of thousands of tons of rock - would reveal solid rock that would make for naturally secure retaining walls, primarily on the rectangular project's widest sides.

Instead, they found a mix of hard rock, fractured and fissured rock, and looser stones.

"It's a very rocky area," said Don Adams, project manager for Houston-based Linbeck earthwork and concrete company.

He estimated that roughly two-thirds of the steep walls required extra attention to shore them up, using an engineering technique called soil nailing.

Crystal Bridges hired Linbeck and Nabholz Construction Corp. of Rogers in October 2005 to form a joint venture for handling pre-construction work.

In soil nailing, workers reinforce natural ground or fill material by inserting rods called soilnails, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The 100,000-square-foot museum is being built on 100 forested acres in Bentonville. Crystal Bridges is to include six pavilions with about 30,000 square feet of gallery space for American, state and regional art.

The museum's name was derived from a natural stream on the property, northeast of Bentonville's downtown square, that will pool into two separate ponds.

The project also includes a 250-seat hall for banquets and community events, a research library and educational space.

Officials estimate the museum will draw a quarter-million visitors annually.

Crystal Bridges' permanent collection includes works by Charles Willson Peale, Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, and Asher B. Durand's Kindred Spirits, a painting Alice Walton purchased in early 2005 for $35 million, which at the time set an auction record for an American painting.

Workman wouldn't provide cost estimates for the construction.

"We're not ever going to say what it costs to do this," he told reporters, referring to the Walton family and museum officials. "This is a gift."

Those behind the privately funded project want people to focus on the museum and not how many dollars are spent on it, he said.

When officials revealed the museum's conceptual plans in May 2005, they put the cost at $50 million. In April, Workman indicated it would cost more but wouldn't provide specifics.

For Friday's tour, visitors were taken by bus from the project's construction headquarters on J Street to the site. The bus traveled on the same, 3,000-foot, winding, tree-lined road that museum visitors one day will take to the entrance.

Visitors then will enter the museum through an elevator tower and descend three stories into an open, covered courtyard leading to the museum's glass-enclosed lobby.

"One of the things we're trying to achieve is minimal impact on the forest," Workman said, adding that he must give permission before workers take out any trees of substantial size that have not already been approved for removal.

"When this opens, we want the forest and the buildings to meet," he said.

Front Section, Pages 1, 12 on 10/27/2007

Upcoming Events