Bergmeyer leads an all-star consultant team through a BIM-powered process to create a fresh, new café for the Cleveland Museum of Art that captivates the senses.
Bergmeyer has been working with the Cleveland Museum of Art on the planning and design of a 13,000-sf foodservice facility since 2004. Housed in a new wing designed by Rafael Vinoly Architects, the project includes two banquet spaces, a fine dining restaurant, a café, and a state-of-the-art kitchen linking them all.
Through changes in museum leadership, foodservice operators, and programmatic goals, Bergmeyer has brought a consistent understanding of design value and a spirit of collaboration. In its final iteration, Bergmeyer has collaborated with interior designers EDG to develop an elegant and operationally efficient facility with flexibility far beyond the Museum’s expectations. In addition to serving their core purpose, spaces can be divided or combined in a number of other service scenarios. The café seating area, for example, does double duty as a pre-function space, while one of the banquet rooms allows the restaurant to nearly double in size if needed. This flexibility, resulting from smart planning and close teamwork, will enable the Museum to expand on the types of events it can accommodate, contributing to the bottom line.
As Architect or Record, Bergmeyer was responsible for a tight budget and even tighter floor-to-floor dimension. In order to deliver on both, we insisted on two critical tools for the team -- an experienced cost estimator and BIM (building information modeling). Ongoing budget feedback from the earliest stages of programming enabled strategic decision making and encouraged the most effective and efficient design strategies. Using BIM to fully model and coordinate structural, architectural, mechanical, lighting, and fire protection systems during the development of the project’s construction documents, the team expects to realize reductions in both the construction duration and the change orders typically associated with limited above-ceiling spaces.