Heinz History Center’s New Museum Conservation Center Achieves LEED Gold Certification

We are pleased to announce that the Museum Conservation Center at the Heinz History Center has achieved LEED NC Gold certification. The nine-story facility houses the Museum Conservation Center, which opened last September and provides the public a place to bring valuable heirlooms for professional conservation services and advice. Pittsburgh’s Heinz History Center is one of the first museums in the United States to offer these services directly to the public, and is also an educational resource for anyone interested in preserving or restoring historical artifacts. The Museum Conservation Center holds workshops to teach visitors about conservations processes, drawing upon the techniques used by professional staff in protecting the History Center’s collection. The Museum Conservation Center also houses 55,000 sf of state-of-the-art storage space for the Heinz History Center’s collection of more than 32,000 artifacts.

LEED certification presents significant challenges for museum and archive facilities, where temperature, lighting, security, and other requirements can be energy intensive. This project was able to achieve the impressive Gold level certification thanks to thorough coordination between all members of the project team from the beginning design phases through construction and occupancy. evolveEA was selected by Heinz History Center to facilitate this coordination, and provided the team with the necessary understanding of the LEED framework to ensure the project’s successful certification. The rest of the project team consisted of The Design Alliance (architect), Mascaro Construction (contractor), Limbach (HVAC contractor), and Ferry Electric.
The Museum Conservation Center is located behind the History Center in the Strip District at 1221 Penn Ave. and is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday to Friday, primarily by appointment. The Conservation Center is also hosting several workshops this fall, when visitors can learn museum-quality techniques for preserving their cherished heirlooms. More information about the workshops is available on the Heinz History Center’s website.