Oklahoma City National Memorial Foundation

PROJECT PURPOSE

As Oklahoma?s most-visited destination, the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum was impacted particularly hard by the pandemic. Daily fluctuations in Museum admissions, which continue to underperform relative to historical trends, prove the pandemic remains a threat to this vital institution. Although our operations continue as effectively as possible, we understand the Memorial Museum?s current structure is not equipped to the newest building health standards promoted by the CDC and design and construction industry experts. Capital improvements must be made to rebuild confidence, expand our pandemic visitor capacity, and create an even more healthy and safe experience for all of our building occupants. Since our reopening of the Museum in June 2020, visitors of diverse backgrounds, including student and senior citizen tour groups, move in two directions through a narrow Museum lobby and up and down one elevator. The pandemic has helped us recognize our current HVAC system is inadequate in its ability to properly circulate and filter the air within the Museum to safeguard visitors from the unintentional spread of contagions. We seek to make the proposed capital improvements to meet the operational and visitor needs in this pandemic era, while serving Oklahoma and its diversity of communities.

EVIDENCE

The sudden onset of COVID-19 and its lingering duration caused an unprecedented disruption in the tourism industry generally and at the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum specifically. Visitation and the demand for the services provided by the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum were reduced by an alarming forty percent (40%). Following the CDC?s recommended layered approach, this project incorporates critical mitigation strategies, including physical distancing to reduce congestion and improvements to our existing ventilation system. These strategies are being implemented to avoid the risk of potential spread of disease and to lower exposure risk.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

To encourage a personal and memorable experience, we consistently reach out to and welcome guests of every generation, introducing them to the message and mission of the Memorial and Museum. We purposefully focus our outreach on younger and older generations. However, the pandemic has created an obstacle and hardship for many, particularly senior tour groups and students. Prior to COVID, seniors typically had the time and resources to visit, but because of COVID and the fear of potentially compromising their health, senior visits have been greatly reduced. Our outreach is also intentionally focused on students and schools, particularly those underserved and disproportionately impacted because of COVID or otherwise. It?s critical that our younger generations know this story. With the onset of COVID, followed by school closures, remote learning and other educational interferences, field trips and out-of-classroom educational opportunities have been non-existent. We owe every student in rural and urban districts throughout Oklahoma, the opportunity to safely experience the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum. By providing a healthy environment, students can enhance their learning beyond the classroom while visiting the Memorial Museum. We are eager to welcome and share our story with busloads of our younger and older generations.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

The primary process for measuring key project performance indicators will be through visitor intake once inside the Memorial Museum. This intake will include tracking the number of daily visitors, capturing their residential zip code, visitor experience satisfaction and average duration of their time spent inside the Museum. We will also measure the project timeline and budget to confirm that we are staying on the course as intended.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

Able to continue operation without additional funding from the State of Oklahoma