Facility and Pre-Architectural Planning Services

White Oak, as institutional planners, supports museums by developing their facility and program objectives, functional requirements and specifications. We understand how a museum should function operationally and so we specify infrastructure and systems to maximize efficiency and impact. The members of White Oak’s Program and pre-Architectural Team can co-design with you:

Architectural Room Books: The Owner’s architectural expectations, functional specifications, programs and adjacencies.

Learning Space Matrixes provide direction to architects and exhibit designers.

By using our international lists of museum-qualified architects, exhibit designers/fabricators and theater system suppliers, we run selection processes that translate your museum’s objectives into Requests for Proposals (RFP’s) and selection criteria.

During the design phases, the construction/fabrication process and through opening, White Oak is available for team meetings, site visits and consultations to discuss operational questions and value-engineering choices through more detailed editions of the Room Book and comment memos on the evolving design and construction.

This diagram for TELUS World of Science-Calgary (TELUS Spark) is the end product of planning analysis, and thoughtful discussion at the management level. White Oak helped the Museum’s leadership express what they needed before incurring the expense of a full architectural team.
Click on graphic to see a larger version.

Some of our architectural program development projects include the TELUS Spark! (Calgary, Canada); Lied Discovery Children’s Museum (Las Vegas, NV); Science Museum of Virginia (Richmond, VA); Rochester Museum & Science Center (Rochester, NY); Heritage Harbor Museum (Providence, RI); Peoria Riverfront Museum (Peoria, IL); Canadian Science & Technology Museum (Ottawa, Canada); TELUS World of Science Edmonton (Edmonton, Canada); Muzeo (Anaheim, CA); Science Center of Iowa (Des Moines, IA); Exploration Place (Wichita, KS) and THE WORKS at the Carnegie Science Center (Pittsburgh, PA).

Integrated Services

Requests for Qualifications	Sent to lists of museum-qualified designers and suppliers
Requests for Proposals	Detailed bidding documents for scopes, terms, schedules and budgets
Selection Committee Facilitation	Coaching and support services for the museum's volunteer selection committees
Contracting Negotiations	Contract templates and facilitation toward signed agreements
Room Book: Edition 1	Orients the architects to the project
Room Book: Edition 2	Adds functional adjacency diagrams
Room Book: Edition 3	Adds technical requirements
Room Book Reconciliation	Verifies/modifies the specs against the actual designs and cost estimates
Owner's Program Rep. Services	Represents the Owner's program interests and the visitor experience at team meetings and reviews
Comment Memos on Evolving Designs	Review of design packages for compliance with institutional goals and specifications

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