Bugs and butterflies

Contractor demolishes, renovates Custom House first floor for museum

By Sam Barnes

Half of the first floor interior of the 150-year-old U. S. Custom House is being demolished and renovated to accommodate the New Orleans Insectarium & Butterfly House, a 23,000-sq.-ft. museum operated by the Audubon Nature Institute.

Roy Anderson Corp. of Gulfport, Miss., should complete the $21 million Canal Street facility in July.

When opened, the museum will be the largest freestanding museum in the United States devoted to more than 900,000 known species of insects. An annual visitation of 428,000 is expected.

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David Waggonner, principal architect with Waggonner & Ball Architects of New Orleans, said the project is considered an "historical restoration, which means we must restore it back to its original intent. The most important thing is that the exhibition sequence has to fit the historical pattern of the building.

"Audubon worked with the existing carriageway system to use that as their primary artery for the building."

Dale Stastny, a representative with the Audubon Institute, said the multi-roomed museum will include numerous exhibits when opened this summer, including:

• Field Camp - introduces visitors to the world of arthropods
  
• Life Underground - shrinks guests to bug size with oversized exhibitry and gigantic animatronic insects
  
• Cooking Show and Cultural Café
  
• Insects of New Orleans and Louisiana
  
• Bug Show
  
• Hall of Fame - Preserved examples of the biggest, fastest and most impressive insects
  
• Metamorphosis - Examines insect courtship, mating and life cycles
  
• Butterflies in Flight Exhibit

Project manager Glenda Bowen of Roy Anderson said early demolition work required the reopening of original archways through existing masonry walls, removal of drop-down ceilings, rerouting of existing utilities and demolition and removal of concrete slabs.

"To follow the new layout of the museum, it was necessary to fill in some of the existing wall openings as well as make new ones," Bowen added. "Anytime we filled in an opening, we had to build it back to solid brick."

Cutting through the existing 3-ft.-thick walls that enclose each museum room did not compromise the integrity of the building because "the walls are architectural, not structural," she said. Core drillers were used to cut through the masonry and brick.

"We're trying to re-use the brick as we remove it," Bowen added.

Bricks are placed in a staging area, where they are inspected, cleaned or disposed of. The brick was in such good condition that no new ones had been purchased for the project as of December.

Slab demolition was needed throughout most of the museum to accommodate new utility lines.

"About two-thirds of the concrete is being removed to make way for new underground electrical components and to adjust for elevation changes in the slabs," Bowen said. Hamp's Construction LLC of New Orleans is breaking the concrete with a backhoe and transporting it by skid steer loaders to dump trucks outside the building.

About 10,000 sq. ft. of new concrete is being poured in its place.

Within the Butterfly House, an additional 2 ft. of soil is being excavated below the existing slab to make way for a fishpond that will be the room's focal point.

Three existing carriageways - one running north and south and two running east and west - will be left in place, although some of the iron gates that lead into the passages from outside the building will be replaced.

All of the gates are being glassed in to accommodate the museum's HVAC system. The passages originally provided access for carriages in the 1800s.

In another unique twist to the demolition phase, a circa-1918 vault door must be removed from the second floor.

"We have to salvage the vault's 15-ton door, so we'll cut a hole in the floor and lower the door to the first floor," said jobsite superintendent Frank Jenkins. The removal will be performed early this year.

"We're going to erect an A-frame structure, cut the floor out below (the first floor ceiling) and lower the door with 'come-alongs,'" Jenkins added. Two 9-ton forklifts will transport the door from the first floor room to one of the building's carriageways.

"Once in the carriageway, a larger forklift will take the door out of the building," he said.

Other demolition-related work required that small trenches be hand-dug into the brick columns and ceilings to support new electrical conduit, then plastered over. Larger conduit for HVAC ductwork and chillwater lines are being suspended from the ceilings and shielded by painted metal.

While most of the plaster-over-brick ceilings are being left in place, contractors are performing "soundings" to determine the condition of the plaster. King & Co. Inc. of New Orleans is restoring the plaster found to be brittle.

"Overall, the museum's finishes are not that extraordinary - primer and paint and that's about it," Jenkins said. "But there is some millwork to match existing woodwork."

New 5-in.-thick slabs are being poured with 3,000-psi concrete reinforced with wire mesh and steel. Lafarge of Metairie is supplying all of the concrete, most of which is being pumped into place.

Other work includes additions to an existing mechanical room, construction of mechanical mezzanines, mechanical work on the second and third floors, and construction of Audubon administrative offices on the fourth floor.

Also part of the Roy Anderson contract is spot granite repairs around the exterior perimeter of the building.

About 20 crewmen, on average, are working at the site, including subcontractors.

Useful Resources

More information about the New Orleans Insectarium & Butterfly House can be found at: http://www.auduboninstitute.org/insect/