The city’s media were invited to tour the construction site yesterday where museum director Eloise Wallace walked them through the site’s development.
"It’s really interesting to see all of those different layers coming together beyond the build to get ready to open the doors," Ms Wallace said.
Construction plans had deliberately included design concepts that could be enjoyed by multiple generations — from mother’s rooms, to cafes and teaching class rooms.
With caves, slides and play areas, "play is embedded throughout the building", she said.
She was particularly excited about school-aged children, who had never experienced a Southland museum, being able to access the education room as well as the curriculum programmes and resources on site.
Another goal was to "pique the interest" of visitors to extend their stay to further explore the region’s outlying museums which expanded on Southland’s story.
The Gala St site would have both static and feature exhibitions, she said.
The 700sq m multi-purpose exhibition area had an integrated 7m-high ceiling area to allow for a more flexible display space that would be able to host large items or have artefacts suspended from the ceiling.
Naylor Love senior site manager Iain Chapman said the suspended double-hulled waka, the jewel of the museum’s crown which extended through the central foyer, was his favourite feature.
"So when we started the job, I could see in my mind’s eye what they were going to look like ... I thought this is going to be fantastic — as if you’re at the bottom of the ocean [looking up] watching them going past."
Construction remains on schedule with the western exhibition building due to be completed by the end of 2025 and the foyer and eastern, cafe section due for completion in early 2026.
