CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx — The Art Museum of South Texas HVAC system has reached its end of life and several priceless art pieces are at risk of being damaged.
KRIS 6 News reached out to the city to hear how they plan to keep the art safe.
The museum consists of two connecting buildings home to two separate HVAC systems, one is already 20 years old.
KRIS 6 News reporter Esmeralda Zamora spoke with Mathews CCAC a local HVAC company, who said the normal life expectancy of an HVAC system for a building that big would be 10 to 15 years.
However, because of this the museum has had to rely on the American Bank Centers cooling system, the system itself is not suited to keep the museum at the right temperature to preserve the art pieces.
“We actually have also missed out on being able to host some of the traveling art collections here because the groups were not happy and did not feel that the museums HVAC was sufficient for their artwork,” Assistant City Manager Heather Hurlbert said .
Utilizing $3.5 million from the cities sea wall project, a new air condition system will be purchased and installed into the museum in about 18 months.
The city said rather than having two separate systems for each building at the art museum they plan on making sure one system can work for both buildings.
The art is not the only thing seeing the effects of the poor temperatures in the building. A local restaurant "Elizabeths", inside the art museum has been experiencing difficulties as well.
“We had a really large event here and the building was registering in at probably 85 plus degrees which then put our kitchen well over 100 degrees and our kitchen staff was having a really hard time making sure dishes were prepared correctly and in good timing," General manager Shoshana Riehl said.
The art center shares its cooling system also with the harbor play house and the museum of science and technology which are now relying on the American bank center's HVAC system.
The city said there are plans in place within the next couple years to install independent systems within those facilities.
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