AccuWeather.com

By Kirstie Hettinga, AccuWeather.com Staff Writer

Aug 30, 2010; 7:33 AM ET

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One could say that Dr. Hank Hine is holding his breath until the end of this hurricane season.

As the director of the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Fla., Hine is looking forward to the grand opening of the museum's new building in January 2011.

The new building has been described by some as a fortress, whereas the older building, which opened in 1982, was located in a marine warehouse, parts of which were below the flood plain.

"As we looked at expanding our facility... we realized that the old structure was inadequately protected against storms," Hine said.

During the threats of past hurricanes, the museum had considered many contingency plans, including trucking the artwork out of state. However, Hine said that internal measures were enacted to protect the collection, which has been called the most important collection of Spanish art in the Western Hemisphere.

A concrete block room was therefore built on the second floor of the current building, and the paintings are moved into that room in the advance of a storm.

"We created... big wooden platforms on wheels that we lowered the paintings onto and rolled them and then lift them up with pulleys to the second floor," Hine said.

The process was especially laborious, as some of the paintings are as much as 14 feet long and can weigh up to half a ton.

The new Dali Museum, designed by architect Yann Weymouth, is built to withstand a Category 5 hurricane. Photo courtesy of the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida.

The new building, however, will eliminate the need for this process. For example, the art will be kept on the third floor, 40 feet above the 100-year flood plain.

"So, we just roll down the steel hurricane shutters on the third floor and then we just wait for the storm to pass," Hine said.

The walls of the building are designed to withstand a Category 5 storm, with winds of 165 mph, while the glass of the building can withstand the 135-mph winds of a Category 3.

Architect Yann Weymouth said that everything that is "mission critical" to the museum will now reside above the flood plain.

"The ground floor level are things which can be replaced," he said.

The walls of the structure are 18 inches thick, Weymouth said, "with enormous amount of steel reinforcing beams inside, much more than normal."

Also. the breakage-resistant properties of the glass are tested by using a jet engine to fling two-by-fours at the double-layer panels.

As some may be confused as to why the glass is Category 3 resistant and the building itself resistant to Category 5 storms, Weymouth says not to worry.

"Within the building, should the glass break... as you buckle the building down in preparation for a storm, we have additional storm shutters that enclose the mission-critical parts of the building," he said.

While some have described the new building as a fortress, Weymouth said "We called it a treasure box, because of course, it's containing a treasure. But it's a very strong and reinforced treasure box."

The museum is set to open in its new location on Jan. 11, 2011 at 11:11 a.m.

Until then, however, Hine said, "We have to get through this one last hurricane season where we're in this building."

According to Hine, he's keeping his fingers crossed.

Related to the story:

2010 Hurricane Center

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