Norfolk’s Chrysler Museum of Art confronts sea-level rise
Norfolk’s Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk will eventually lose its ongoing battle with the body of water it faces at the Hague. The museum’s board members and officers discuss the uncertain future for the museum’s current location in every meeting.
“When and where? are questions we ask each other,” the deputy director of the museum, Susan Leidy said.
The area that is known as Ghent was created atop filled marshlands in the early 1800s. The museum was built over a landfill that used to be Smith Creek, a continuation of the Hague, according to Joshua Behr, a research scientist and data analyst at Old Dominion University.
Built in the 1930s in Italianate architectural style, the museum overlooks majestic historic homes, built along the banks of the Hague, a Y-shaped inlet off the Elizabeth River.
The museums’ patrons raised $40 million two years ago in order to improve the museum’s structure, according to Leidy. They added a new extension to the museum that sits a foot higher than the rest of the building.
“We moved the HVAC from the basement to the roof of the building,” Leidy added. A much stronger sump pump was installed. “We bought a very strong generator to support operations in case of weather emergencies.”
Although the main building is a few steps above the street that separates it from the Hague, metal floodgates were installed in front of the main door. “They are raised up from the ground to keep the water from pouring onto the first floor,” Leidy said. The system was utilized twice last year.
The Hague’s shoreline was reshaped into a semicircular arch that wraps around the water and ends in front of the museum. It resembles the body of a sea serpent with a bifurcated tail. One branch ends a few blocks away from Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, Eastern Virginia’s most sophisticated hospital and Level I trauma center. The other branch is connected to Elizabeth River, the main artery of Norfolk’s shipping and the U.S. naval traffic.
The head of the serpent rests underneath the museum.
Ghent is sinking into the deep marsh peat, which is over 50 feet deep, according to Behr. Global warming has awakened the sea monster, which lashes around during the ever more frequent and increasing heavy rain showers, demanding its stolen grounds.
Behr said, “It’s not clear how many years it will take for the water to reclaim the land, but it will eventually win.”
Scenes like ducks swimming on the museum’s steps and neighbors canoeing down the street after a storm foreshadow an ominous fate for the museum.
Floodwaters have left stains all-around the museum’s marble facade, in some places over a foot above the ground. Leidy insisted that the basement, now completely empty of all artwork and electronics, has remained dry. This was partly due to the levee built behind the building, facing Olney Street, which she jokingly called, “Lake Olney.”
Numerous cars were lost during every storm in this intersection that fills rapidly and swallows everything on the ground. Police and rescue squads in boats have saved many clueless motorists from the streets surrounding the museum.
“This type of flooding used to happen only during hurricanes and nor’easters,” Andria McClellan, Norfolk City Councilwoman said. McClean, who lives close to the museum, added that she lost her car in the rising tidal water while taking her son to school last year. It was a sunny day.
Nuisance flooding is a relatively new phenomenon that plagues the museum and its surrounding areas. On a sunny day, during high tide, the Elizabeth River pushes a huge amount of water onto the streets surrounding the Hague. Motorists are often taken by surprise as their cars flood quickly.
The drainage system can’t handle the volume of rain that is getting increasingly more frequent and more intense, according to Behr. The manholes often act as small geysers, spewing water onto the streets surrounding the museum. The streets themselves turn into small rivers with whitecaps.
McClean said that much of Ghent’s runoff stormwater is led through massive pipes that run underneath the museum, dumping the water into the Hague. Thus, water pushed from the Elizabeth River during high tides joins the stormwater from the entire area right in front of the museum. These drainage pipes are as old as the museum.
Behr said, “The economy will eventually kill life around in Ghent and force the museum to shut down.” He added, “How many cars are people willing to lose? How much are they willing to pay for the increasing cost of flood insurance? Who is going to donate art to a museum that might be lost in a flood? Who would want to venture a visit to see a new exhibit at the Chrysler if, even on sunny days, the area is flooded?”
The gas station behind the museum closed a few years ago after repeated flooding.
The congregants of the Unitarian Church, a landmark that is as old as the museum, finally gave up and abandoned the location. Sitting caddy-corner from the museum, its basement that housed the heating and electrical systems was flooded in 2009 during a nor’easter. The building has been on the market since 2014.
Chrysler Museum is the heart and center of Norfolk’s art district. Its vast collection of classic and contemporary art makes the museum one of the best in Virginia. Its glass collection rivals most museums in the country, according to its website. It inspires the young and the old with its workshops, lectures and visiting artists.
The Chrysler Glass Studio, housed across the street from the main building, trains future glass artists and has daily glass shows at noon.
There have been many weddings and social events at the museum and its manicured grounds.
On a beautiful day, one can often find Tim Seibles, the poet laureate of Virginia, perched underneath the majestic southern live oak tree on the left side of the museum, writing his poetry.
If the museum leaves Ghent, the area itself will be in peril. It had happened 40 years ago when many residents left for the suburbs and allowed historic homes to fall into disrepair. Norfolk has spent millions to encourage development in Ghent and it has mostly succeeded.
Elizabeth Andrews, the director of Virginia Coastal Policy, said that the intensity of the recurrent flooding will force the city of Norfolk to make serious decisions about which neighborhoods to save and which ones to abandon. Would Ghent be worth saving?
The city has reached out to Dutch scientists to devise solutions for saving the area around the Hague. McClean visited the Netherlands in October 2017 to see how Norfolk could learn to “live with water” that surrounds it. She emphasized the residents’ responsibility by retaining rainwaters for later irrigation. She complained that the residents are not participating. In fact, “They rejected a penny raised on their yearly taxes to give the city 1.8 million of badly needed dollars to fight climate change.”
Christopher Revels, a Norfolk painter, said that he walks through the museum every day for inspiration. His latest collection of paintings and murals is called Walking Houses. The selection is a parody of the city’s unreasonable expectation of homeowners around the museum and the museum itself to help remedy the problem of flooding. “My painted houses have legs to escape the flood,” he said. He had to do something to show his fear of the disaster in the making.
It does take political will and money to save the Hague and its surrounding neighborhoods, including the museum, McClean said. It has to be done as a part of a larger strategy to save other sections of Norfolk as well, she added.
Susan Connor of the Norfolk Army Corps of Engineers said that $1.7 billion is needed to build a dike, like those used in the Netherlands, to prevent the waters of the Elizabeth River from pouring into the Hague during storms. The study will be presented to the United States Congress in 2020.
Connor said, “We can’t build a wall around the museum or the city.” The museum is just a small part of the problem for Norfolk, a city that has to protect the third largest U.S. Naval Station, a thriving seaport and its business district.
For decades, the city government worried about a big hurricane and tried to device evacuation plans through its many tunnels and bridges. According to the city’s website, the entire city will be submerged if a category three hurricane lands directly on Norfolk.
With the effect of global warming, sea level rise and continuous subsidence (sinking of its land), Norfolk now worries about losing its heritage, its beautiful historic houses, its major hospital, its art district and the opera house — all housed within a short distance of each other and the Hague. Chrysler Museum with it highly-prized collection of art and glasswork sits at the epicenter of any storm.
For now, the museum can rely only on its own board and supporters to take care of itself. It can’t wait for the city to save it. Leidy said that the museum has emergency plans. “Our nightmare is a perfect storm, a large storm hitting Norfolk at high tide.” Most of the museum’s priceless collection of art is located on the second floor, according to Leidy. Its extensive glass collection is mostly compromised of portable pieces that will be transported to the higher ground.
McClean said, “This is a huge opportunity for the Chrysler to be a leader in confronting sea level rise through innovation. They could set an example. Their leadership has to be the voice that will amplify this issue.”
Working with WAZE, a crowd-sourced navigation system, she added, the city is in the process of creating an app to warn people not to come to Ghent during high tides and flooding.
Numerous studies have been completed examining the impact of sea level rise in Norfolk. Old Dominion University, Hampton University, the U.S Corp of Engineers, the City of Norfolk, and many other organizations have created a plethora of studies that have led to charts and graphs and websites and potential solutions. But, little action has been taken.
On a beautiful sunny day, the patrons of the museum dine on the patio outside, admiring the beauty of the Hague. It’s impossible for them not to notice both small and large sinkholes by the pedestrian walkway, covered by orange cones and barrels.
Water bubbles to surface in the flowerbeds and the grassy field around the museum. It’s not from the sprinkler system. The water is coming to take away what is man-made.
The sea serpent will reclaim its head; it will free itself from the marble arches and columns of the museum.
And the city waits and plans and plans.
