By Anne Semmes
Last Wednesday week they arrived with awe written on their faces, the Bruce Museum trustees, donors, and friends invited to see and celebrate the “topping off” of a last steel beam taking its place in the New Bruce construction. What they saw, on perhaps the hottest afternoon of the summer at 97 degrees, was a towering framework of steel girders, surpassing for many of the 50-plus onlookers, including Museum staffers, what they imagined would be.
“On paper, we knew how big it was going to be, but seeing it now actually being put up, it seems so much bigger!” said Anne von Stuelpnagel, the Museum’s director of exhibitions who was first on the scene. von Stuelpnagel has watched how the steel workers “balance on the steel beams,” and was looking forward to seeing them install that celebratory steel beam.
“It was always a little hard to envision it in full scale,” said arriving Peter Sutton, the Museum’s former executive director. Having lived with that “little model” for his 18 years he too was a bit in awe of the size of that William L. Richter Art Wing taking shape. Sutton’s dream for the Museum to become a world class regional museum was being realized for him with Richter’s $15 million gift of that 40,000-plus square-foot Richter gallery.
“It took a long time, but it got here,” said arriving Susan E. Lynch. Her 30-years of Museum support is evidenced in present Museum executive director Robert Wolterstorff’s full title as The Susan E. Lynch Executive Director.
Richter was last to arrive, and hurriedly took his place to sign his name along with others on that celebratory steel beam. “It’s very exciting,” he said, “because it’s happening so quickly now, and the overall size is bigger than I imagined.” His hope is, “the institution lives up to its size.”
Welcoming them all was Wolterstorff. “As you stand on this construction site you know it now—you can feel it now: the New Bruce is really happening! Sometimes dreams come true.”
He traced that dream: “Thirty years ago, a Bruce Auxiliary formed which included some people who are still involved to this day—Susan Lynch, Bruce Cohen, Chuck Royce, and others. They believed that the people of Greenwich deserved a better museum…that the Bruce could be so much more and do so much more.
“They knew the Bruce really needed a restaurant and community spaces…the Bruce needed five galleries for the permanent Art Collection…the Bruce needed much more space for changing science exhibitions. And they knew the Bruce really needed three classrooms for education. The dream they had led inevitably to this New Bruce. Greenwich at last is getting the Museum it deserves, and today the Bruce comes of age.”
Museum board chair Jim Lockhart next spelled out “The CASE for the New Bruce – it starts with C for Community. And then importantly adds A for Art and S for Science, and most importantly E for Education.” He gave thanks for his dedicated board members, the Bruce staff, volunteers, and 400-plus donors,” resulting he said in the New Bruce as “a perfect example of a public private partnership for Greenwich.”
First Selectman Fred Camillo then recalled having shared his vision with Wolterstorff in the summer of 2019 for “a new pedestrian-friendly Greenwich Avenue connected to a new waterfront district.” He was seeing the New Bruce “really fitting that vision and happening at the best possible time.” He gave thanks to the staff, board members, and patrons “for making this vision a reality.”
Up next was Bob Lawrence, chair of the New Bruce Building Committee, introduced by Wolterstorff as “chief dreamer.” “For over 100 years the Bruce has been a beacon,” said Lawrence, “of culture for our community, enriching lives through art and science. The goal of our committee eight years ago was to design and construct a stunning new Bruce that creates a cutting-edge museum experience. ‘Never stop believing’ was our team’s informal motto, never. So now, do you believe?”
“What more can we say about getting this job done,” concluded trustee Heidi Brake Smith, cochair of the New Bruce Campaign Committee. “On a blustery day in October, where we were freezing, we started groundwork. On the hottest day of the summer, we are topping off the steel. Susan Mahoney and I have worked very hard. The whole team is great…Come by the Museum Drive and watch your eyes pop and your jaws drop.”
The lifting of the “signed off” celebratory steel beam then commenced. As the cables drew the beam up to its high placement von Stuelpnagel observed, “It’s really awesome that two people only receive the steel beams from the crane. The beams dangle mid-air. The two men have to swing them around, then screw them down. It’s like a dance.”
But Wolterstorff had the last words. “The raising of the last beam is just one step along the way, but I want you to see it as more than that…Let everyone note the height of our aspirations.”
