COLUMBIA (AP) - The State Historical Society of Missouri has revealed conceptual drawings of a planned $35 million research center and museum.
The three-story Center for Missouri Studies will house museum galleries on the first floor and collections of manuscripts and newspapers set aside for researchers on the second floor, according to the Columbia Daily Tribune. The third floor will house the society's administrative offices.
The construction of the building is being funded by state revenue bonds.
Society director Gary Kremer said the new center has adopted the symbol of the confluence of the Missouri River and Mississippi River to guide the center's design. The conceptual drawings were unveiled Thursday, and schematic design drawings have been approved by the executive committee of the historical society's board of trustees.
"This came out of endless conversations - repeated conversations between the staff and the architects," Kremer said. "There were lots of brainstorming discussions of 'What does this building mean?' and 'What message do we want to send?' "
The new building will have two front doors, with one facing south toward the University of Missouri and the other facing north toward downtown Columbia.
The society was founded in 1898 and is the trustee of state historic records. It is currently located on the ground floor of Ellis Library.
Society board president Stephen Limbaugh said the society's facilities for many documents and items from its art collection "have been woefully inadequate for decades."