Upgrading and retrofitting the Field Museum, Chicago, Illinois.

The Field Museum is a world-renowned natural science institution. It is housed in an 84,000 m 2 building constructed from 1917 to 1921. Housed in the building are scientific laboratories, specimen preparation facilities, resource centers, over twenty-one million specimens, public exhibits, educational venues and lecture halls, administrative areas and restaurants. This paper presents the approaches used by The Field Museum to bring itself forward into the 21 st Century. The process started in 1993 and includes significant modifications/ replacement/modernization of the HVAC systems. Such work requires diligent coordination of installation work with all other museum functions. As a facility that is open to the public 363 days per year while also hosting over 1,000 special events, many added challenges are brought to the retrofit process. Museum management, building operations, design team and construction staff provide constant monitoring and coordination of efforts.