Gil Truitt (left) cuts the ribbon on the newly renovated Sage Building, while Research Director Tori O’Connell applauds. (KCAW photo/Rachel Waldholz).
After a summer cocooned in scaffolding, the Sitka Sound Science Center shed its tarps this weekend (10-18-14) for an Alaska Day unveiling ceremony.
A crowd of about a hundred turned out to watch community member Gil Truitt cut the ribbon on the Center’s newly renovated Sage Building.
You can find a special feature exploring the history of the Sage Building here.
Sitka Sound Science Center boardmember Trish White speaks at the ceremony celebrating the newly renovated Sage Building on Saturday morning. (KCAW photo/Rachel Waldholz)
The three-year, $1.4-million dollar effort overhauled the exterior of the 1930-era Sage Building, which once housed the science programs at Sheldon Jackson College. The Science Center bought it in 2010, and has added a range of research and education programs to the original aquarium and hatchery.
Science Center Executive Director Lisa Busch said most of the work was finished just in time for the unveiling.
“We just finished the roof yesterday,” she said, laughing. “The glass for the doors came in at midnight last night — they went in at 1 in the morning!”
Funding for the project came from the Murdock Trust, the Juneau hatchery Douglas Island Pink and Chum, the State of Alaska, the Macintosh Foundation and the family of Sheldon Jackson science professor Molly Ahlgren, for whom the aquarium is named.
But the single largest funder was the Rasmuson Foundation, which gave nearly $500,000.
Rasmuson President and CEO Diane Kaplan was on hand for the unveiling — and she had a reveal of her own: a surprise $10,000 grant.
“We wanted to just recognize the great work you’ve done, and make a small grant, a special grant today of $10,000 for artwork,” Kaplan told the crowd, to raucous applause.
Busch said the grant was a “complete surprise.” She said it will go toward something special: “The je ne sais quoi, the frosting on the cake.”
Kaplan suggested artwork made from marine debris.
But this is just the end of phase one for the Science Center, Busch said. Up next: renovating the interior and fixing up the Mill Building next door.
“We couldn’t really work on the inside until the outside was fixed, because we had a lot of rain coming in, a lot of moisture in this building,” Busch said. “The best part of this week, for me, is when we took the tarps down on the inside of the building, that had been holding the water from the leaks for many, many, many years. So that was a huge, huge occasion.”
But Busch said she’s not sure when the next phase of the renovation will begin.
“We need a breather,” she said.
