Kodiak commission will redo its vote on museums' lease plan for the Griffin building

Kodiak's Historic Preservation Commission will vote again Friday on whether two museums' plan to lease the old Griffin Memorial Hospital fits the commission's design intent for the building. The first motion was made by an alternate member, which the commission's draft minutes say alternates shouldn't do when all other commissioners are present.

The commission voted unanimously Oct. 1 that the plan fits. Alternate member Ian Bruce made that motion. The commission's rules give an alternate the right to make motions when a regular member is absent. The draft minutes say the motion is coming back "for correction," and a staff report offers the same motion for Friday.

The recommendation is advisory. The City Council decides on any lease. At a Sept. 8 work session, the council agreed not to sell the building for now, setting aside a bid from Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church to buy it, and said it would take up the museums' lease application later.

The Kodiak History Museum and Kodiak Maritime Museum describe a long-term plan to use the building for collections storage and exhibits open to the public. Their concept design also includes a city information technology office. "The History Museum needs collection storage space, and the Maritime Museum needs both storage and exhibit space," Toby Sullivan, the Maritime Museum's executive director, has said. Sullivan is also a regular member of the commission.

The two-story building on Mission Road was built in 1938 and deeded to the city by the state transportation department in 2023. Its nomination to the National Register of Historic Places is pending. The design intent the commission adopted Oct. 1 says listing would commemorate the building's role in health and medicine in Kodiak and during World War II, and would highlight its Art Moderne architecture.

That design intent calls for rehabilitating the building following the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties, preserving its character-defining exterior features and significant interior features while replacing its mechanical, electrical and fire suppression systems.