In 1999, the National Park Service purchased the Union Building with the long-range goal of making it a visitor facility. Keweenaw National Historical Park completed the first phase of the building’s rehabilitation by stabilizing and restoring its exterior in 2005. This year, the park received an initial allocation of funding to begin planning the interior rehabilitation.

Deciding how to restore the various rooms and determining the best locations for rest rooms, an interior stairway and an elevator for accessibility will be part of the planning process. Concepts for exhibits and a visitor orientation area will also be developed. If additional funding is allocated, the actual work on the interior can begin. If all goes well, this historic building is projected to open its doors to the public in 2011 or 2012. The union Building will then be a  place for visitors to reflect on the connection between mining companies, communities and people, as well as the role of Keweenaw copper mining in our heritage.

This page provides links to background information for the Union Building project. Additionally, announcements of project updates, public meetings or other events associated with the planning and design of exhibits will be posted on this page as they become available. Check back often.

Project Updates

March 2009
The park received the Schematic II Plan for the interior exhibits from the Office of Krister Olmon. This plan further develops the exhibit concept and incorporates feedback from the Value Analysis workshop, the front-end evaluation, project team members and the historian's roundtable. Download an adobe pdf of the Schematic II Plan - 2.0 MB. Please note that all titles, objects and concepts described within are works in progress and may be changed or even deleted as they are further researched and developed.

NPS Photo, Dan Johnson

Dr. William Moore, Dr Mary Murphy, Jo Urion, Dr. Marcella Wells, Heather Lindquist, Sarah Heald, Dr. Larry Lankton and Dr. Betsy Jameson discuss themes, topics and concepts related to proposed exhibits for the Union Building Interpretive Facility.

January 2009
The Office of Krister Olmon, Inc. and Keweenaw National Historical Park hosted a historian's roundtable January 13 - 15 to discuss the national context of the Calumet social story and review themes, concepts and information related to the Union Building exhibits. In addition to staff from the park, Harpers Ferry Interpretive Design Center and Krister Olmon Inc., participants included Dr. Betsy Jameson from the University of Calgary; Dr. Larry Lankton from Michigan Technological University; Dr. William Moore from the University of North Carolina, Willmington; Dr. Mary Murphy from Montana State University; and Dr. Robert Zecker from St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. The roundtable proved to be a success with lively discussion. The exhibit design team will now process the information gathered at the roundtable to further refine the exhibit concepts and content.

The Office of Krister Olmon, Inc. provided a report of findings from focus groups held for the initial exhibit concepts in October 2008. Download a copy of the report. (Adobe pdf)

November 2008
Staff from the park, the Harpers Ferry Interpretive Design Center, Midwest Regional Office and the Office of Krister Olmon, Inc. participated in a Value Analysis Workshop to select and refine a preferred alternative for development. This scheme will be further developed through the exhibit design process.

Download a pdf of the preferred alternative here. 2.36 MB (This alternative is in the very early stages of development and will be further refined through the process. All titles, objects and concepts described within are works in progress and may be changed or even deleted as they are further analyzed.) We are interested in your thoughts about the Union Building exhibits. You are welcome to email comments or ideas about the proposed scheme or the overall interior rehabilitation project.

Work on the steam heating project is nearing completion and the heating system will be activated for the first floor within the next few weeks. The second and third floors will not be activated until the windows are reinstalled on those floors next year.

October 2008
The National Park Service (NPS) and our exhibit planning firm, Krister Olmon, Inc. are hosting a meeting on Tuesday, October 28, 2008, to present preliminary exhibit design alternatives for the Union Building. The meeting will be held at Park headquarters, located at 25970 Red Jacket Road, Calumet beginning at 6:30 p.m.

The purpose of the exhibit is to interpret the relationship of community residents, commercial ventures, and civic organizations to the mining story. The exhibit is tentatively titled Life in a Copper Mining Community. Krister Olmon has been tasked with developing three proposals for presenting Calumet's social history through these exhibits. The firm will share these initial concepts at the meeting. The exhibit planners and designers will show how they intend to distill the interpretive stories and major interpretive themes into messages easily understood in exhibits. In this early stage of development, participants can expect to see a "bubble diagram", a tentative floor plan, and a few illustrations.

August 2008
Rehabilitation of the steam heating system has begun with targeted completion of late Fall 2008.

Krister Olmon, Inc. was selected as the exhibit planning and design contractor from the National Park Service Indefinite Quantities Contract. An exhibit design charette was held with staff from the park, Harpers Ferry Design Center, Midwest Region and Krister Olmon, Inc. to discuss park stories and themes and potential materials for information and display. In late October, a Value Analysis of proposed alternatives for exhibit treatment will be held. A public meeting will be coordinated with this meeting to allow for comment by interested parties.

July 2008
Kirk Associates, LLC in association with SmithGroup, the architectural firm working on the project, held a Value Analysis Study of the various alternatives proposed for the architectural component of the interior rehabilitation. The report from this meeting is currently in draft form and a copy will be posted here when finalized.

Background Information