Services 
M. Goodwin Associates, Inc. provides a comprehensive range of planning and coordination services for any stage in the life of a cultural institution. Beginning with a preliminary case statement for a new museum idea to the programming of a building for renovation and expansion or the facility assessment of an existing facility, MGA contributes thoughtful, seasoned advice to help any project run smoothly. These services fall into the categories of Building Planning and Strategic Planning. Depending on the needs of the project, MGA can supply one or all of these services to an organization of any size. |
Strategic Planning Services
Because museums and cultural facilities are in business for the long run, long-range planning is essential. In concert with building planning, strategic planning aims to make organizations viable well into the future.
Feasibility Studies and Case Statements
From feasibility studies to determine whether a new museum is needed, to case statements to sell funders, government officials and the public on an idea, MGA has the experience, the expertise and a proven track record in helping both public and private clients develop new cultural institutions.
Strategic Planning
Without a thorough, concrete strategic plan, it is extremely difficult for cultural institutions to understand the long-term impacts of their day-to-day decisions. For long-range capital, administrative and organizational planning, MGA’s time-tested process provides organizations with plans that are comprehensive, yet easy to read and follow. Formats are fully customizable from a weekend board retreat, to a series of intensive, week-long staff-only or staff and board workshops. MGA specializes in creating a balanced plan, carefully weighing operating costs, staffing costs, potential income sources, endowment needs, staffing skill needs as well as hundreds of other necessary considerations for cultural institutions.
Economic Studies and Business Plans
It is wise to carefully consider the financial implications before embarking on an expensive programming, construction or exhibition project. MGA can provide detailed economic studies and business plans to give an organization complete information. MGA can recommend a course of action that will allow an institution to use its precious resources most effectively.
Organizational and Management Consulting
MGA has 25 years of experience designing solutions for the complex problems of museums and cultural institutions. From assisting clients in developing staff, trustee and community consensus, to selecting and managing other specialized consultants, MGA can design custom consulting services for any organizational need.
Building Planning Services
MGA’s portfolio of building types includes new construction, adaptive reuse programs, existing facility expansion programs, and mixed-use projects. MGA’s hands-on experience in cultural facility operations allows it to approach each building planning project with the long-term needs of the organization in mind.
Site Selection
MGA can assist clients in selecting an optimal location by providing analyses of the cultural, financial and operational ramifications of choosing a particular site.
Development Agreements
MGA has coordinated the lease and development agreements for several significant institutions, ensuring that the long-term needs of the museum are met and the museum’s priorities are kept as the key development framework.
Architect Selection and Contract Negotiation
For a cultural institution, the choice of an architect is one of the most important and difficult decisions a board of trustees is ever required to make. Extensive knowledge and experience allows MGA to educate trustees about the potential range of candidate architects, practices in contemporary architecture, and the most recent projects completed by the world's leading architects. We are quite knowledgeable about the scope of potential architect-candidates for any project for cultural institutions. MGA can handle the considerable protocols, scheduling and logistics issues related to the architect selection process for both architects and trustees.
Master Planning
MGA can support master planning services that protect the long-term well-being of the institution providing sufficient space for future expansion, while retaining the institution's financial health.
Building Programming
Without a single, balanced, informed, integrated building program document that serves the core needs of the institution, the compromises or priorities made to balance competing interests between these groups can seriously damage an institution.
MGA believes that the building program document is the translation of the museum’s educational, philosophical and intellectual mission and programs into the pragmatic, spatial language used by design professionals. It is also a compilation of the design criteria implicit to the myriad details necessary to prepare spaces for public use—whether they are galleries, reading rooms, carpentry shops, storage spaces, auditoriums or loading docks.
MGA does not provide formulaic, cookie-cutter answers—each program is developed for the unique situation faced by each client. Twenty-five years of experience providing building programming for dozens of world-class institutions has allowed MGA to develop a unique set of skills and tools to create the most complete and useful building program documents available.
Due Diligence
Acquisition of a new site or renovation of a building requires a thorough evaluation of its existing condition as well as its ability to support the needs of a museum or cultural institution. MGA often leads teams of specialized consultants and engineers to provide insights about the suitability of a site or building for renovation or development.
Conceptual Cost Estimate Coordination
In consultation with a local cost estimator or our own cost consultant, MGA can develop conceptual cost estimates in the pre-design phase of a project to help plan organizational budgets, construction budgets and capital campaigns.
Project Phasing
Sometimes all of the needs that comprise a new construction, renovation or expansion project prove to be too much for an institution’s current capital resources. In consultation with our cost estimator, MGA can help reduce initial costs by making project-phasing suggestions that keep the organization running in a fiscally and programmatically responsible manner.
Design Coordination
MGA has the ability to function as the client’s representative, coordinating all aspects of the design throughout the full term of the project.
Peer Review, Technical Review and Evaluation
When designing a building as complex as a museum, misunderstandings about assumptions are not uncommon. MGA has extensive experience and reliable methods for making sure that mistakes and inconsistencies in planning and design are not carried to expensive and time-consuming extremes.
Project Management, Organization, Budgeting and Scheduling
Frequently, project and budgeting decisions are made by a group consisting of many members with differing agendas. MGA is expert at creating, administering and maintaining both the project budget and schedule.
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