Perot Museum of Nature and Science

Civic

A Dallas Landmark of Learning and Design

  • 170 ft. tall
  • 5 stories
  • 180,000 sf
  • 4.7 acres

Developing the Perot Museum was a challenging, once-in-a-lifetime experience. Our team's extensive development experience across many product types prepared us well for this role. We are extremely proud of the Perot Museum's success and of our involvement and contributions to the project.

With the completion of the Perot Museum, we believe we have a unique skill set and a long list of lessons learned that we can offer. Below is a list of some of the important items and experiences that we believe are relevant to your project.

Budget. Financing. Fundraising. Achieving Perfect Balance

Our team managed 100% of the approved project budget. From the beginning, we provided Museum leadership a detailed projected cash flow by month, which allowed them to balance fundraising projections against the potential need for financing in real time. By monitoring these projections closely and analyzing a multitude of fundraising scenarios, the Museum was able to make the decision not to commit to long-term financing and, in turn, diverted millions of dollars originally earmarked for financing costs to invest directly in mission-related costs, such as building and exhibits.

The Hillwood team understands that specific-use projects such as yours are often driven by very specific budget goals. Whether those goals revolve around unique financing strategies, bottom-line budget totals, IRRs, or some other metric, we will tailor our approach to meet those goals. In our hands, the budget is a living document that provides constant feedback to ownership and the project team to help shape future decisions and realize the impact of historical decisions.

Sustainability Certification Environmentally Responsible Design

The Museum was very interested in keeping true to their overall mission and charged our team to pursue environmentally responsible design and construction methods. We were excited to achieve three different certifications – LEED (anticipated Gold), Green Globes (3 out of 4 Globes – only 12 of 750+ Green Globe certified buildings have achieved this), and Sustainable Sites Initiative (certified through initial SSI pilot program).

Environmental certification processes are constantly changing – there are many aspects of the process that can be very costly and even unnecessary for the success of the project. Our team is well-versed in meeting and exceeding environmental standards within the building industry based on educated, responsible decisions and we do not believe in "chasing points" purely for certification or publicity purposes.

USGBC LEED GoldGreen Globe CertifiedSustainable Sites Initiative

City Coordination Working Seamlessly with the City of Dallas

Our team has a long history of successfully navigating the public development process to minimize interference by the city and the related costly delays that can plague a project throughout the design and construction process. The Museum project required adherence to city code as well as a Victory overlay district, affecting building design, parking, landscaping, water collection/re-use, etc. Our team was instrumental in successfully meeting these requirements.

Beyond the Base Building Developing with Imagination

Although we were not involved in specific content development for the Museum, we were tasked with coordinating design of the base building to ensure that the public spaces and the building infrastructure could support the intended use and content (some of it very imaginative and unusual), and also provide future flexibility for growth and change. In what was the most challenging (and probably most rewarding) task throughout the project, we worked with the Museum's leadership, three different exhibit designers, various specialty consultants, the FF&E procurement team, third-party vendors, and a multitude of other interested parties to understand the development process for the various uses and to coordinate base building design and construction activities. This required an intimate understanding of the Museum's mission fulfillment through its exhibit space, theater, public spaces, cafeteria/kitchen, auditorium, and retail shop. It also required a very hands-on approach with the overall Museum leadership team to understand their business model and ensure they would be able to meet their operational goals.

Public Outreach / Communication

Based on our instrumental role in the project, our team was highly involved in various publicity and outreach efforts. From giving oral presentations at Museum events for donors or media outlets, to escorting construction tours for VIPs, to identifying various milestone events, we were highly engaged in the Museum's publicity efforts.