Auckland War Memorial Museum to partially reopen after asbestos discovery forced closure
The museum has been closed since 10 May.
Photo:
123RF
The Auckland War Memorial Museum will partially reopen next week after an extended closure caused by the discovery of asbestos.
The museum has been closed since 10 May when asbestos was found in the ceiling of the original 1929 building.
After having a revised fire evacuation procedure approved by Fire and Emergency last week, the museum has now been cleared by Worksafe and Auckland Council to reopen on Tuesday.
That would make the incoming King's Birthday weekend the fourth weekend in a row missed during the closure.
"I had hoped we would get through for the long weekend but it just wasn't possible," chief executive David Reeves said.
"People have been working day and night on this and we just decided it was better to be sure that we can start on Tuesday rather than have a false start over the weekend."
Reeves estimated the first stage of the reopening would cover about two thirds of the complex.
"It's pretty much the whole of the southern end of the building. So the curved end, for people who know the building," he said.
"That's our main foyer, the retail shop, the cafe, the Auckland galleries, the education centre, the Weird and Wonderful [exhibit], and most of the war galleries on the top floor."
Work to clean the rest of the museum would take a lot longer, Reeves said.
"The 1929 part of the building is just architecturally a much more complex building and it's much more complex for us to devise the appropriate cleaning regime, so it will take a little bit longer because we want to do a good job and not have a stop, start of opening and then needing to close again," he said.
"The area around the grand foyer, the original 1929 foyer, and all of the galleries that are immediately adjacent to that space... [That] area we know will be a very much longer job, but the rest we're hoping within a month or two, but it really depends what we discover."
He said the 24-day closure had dealt a substantial blow to the museum, but it could've been worse.
"We are lucky, if any of this is good luck, that we are between our two overseas international touring shows... So it was going to be a quiet period anyway."
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