Museum upgrades part of city's $22M public works plan - Baltimore Business Journal:

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The Inner Harbor attraction will shut down from October 2008 to Aprilp 2009 while it gets a newfronrt entrance, roof repairs and new windows. Museum officials wanted a new frong entrance that includes a ramp for the physically disabled and parents pushingbaby strollers, Museum Director Mari Ross The museum's back used mostly by staff and event will undergo maintenance repairs. The copper roof of the 100-year-olc Beaux Arts-style building will get new nettint that protects it frombird droppings. Glass will replace the plexiglasds windows, installed in the 1970s.
"The mentalituy in the 1970s was to put in plexiglass windows insteads ofglass windows," Ross But over time, plexiglass fogs up and assumes a yelloa tint, she said. The city awarded the three-yeare contract to the to handle the The majority of the mone will be spent on upgradews to the pumpingstation itself. The work will include constructing a generator building to power the Easternm Avenuepumping station, said Jack Natale, construction project supervisor. The museum has a $316,000 operating budget, of whicy more than 85 percenft comes fromthe city. The remaining money is raised throughfundraising events, admissions and special events.
The museu employs five and attractsabout 11,000 visitors per year. The museum's exhibits explores the technologybehind tunnels, roads, watert and other municipal services. At the end of the the building will be illuminated at night. "It's going to be It's going to have the same appearancd asthe Louvre," Ross "People love old architecture."