By Eric Stern -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 7:27 pm PDT
Propelled by architectural designs and oversized donation checks to
be presented at a ceremony today, construction could begin in September
on a downtown museum of tolerance.
The three-story, glass-encased Capital Unity Center at 16th and N
streets is expected to draw thousands to exhibits and activities on
prejudice, discrimination and stereotypes. The center could open in
January 2008.
The $20.5 million project - which will convert an old school
warehouse - is an outgrowth of the 1999 synagogue firebombings in
Sacramento and the murder of a gay couple in Redding. It will be a
catalyst for learning about diversity within communities, its designers
said.
More than $6 million has been raised so far, including a $1 million
donation that was to be presented Wednesday from the United Auburn
Indian Community, which owns the Thunder Valley Casino.
Rising construction costs have delayed the building renovation for
months - initially tabbed at $10 million. But officials are hopeful
that more money will flow once the public sees that work has started,
ideally in September.
Academy Studios of Novato has designed exhibits to jar visitors and
spur dialogue, such as a diorama featuring a dead Harvey Milk, the
openly gay San Francisco supervisor who was killed in a 1978 city hall
shooting.
Other portrayals could include everyone from farmworker organizer
Cesar Chavez to Michael Newdow, the Elk Grove parent who has waged
high-profile and controversial court battles to remove "God" from the
Pledge of Allegiance and U.S. currency, according to the design
plans.
Academy Studios also proposed exhibits for Clara Shortridge Foltz,
an attorney who broke gender barriers; Doris Roberts, an actress on
"Everybody Loves Raymond," who testified before a congressional panel
about age discrimination in Hollywood; and disability activist Ed
Roberts, who started the Rolling Quads advocacy group in the 1970s at
the University of California, Berkeley.
"This is NOT a history museum," the designers emphasized in their
printed renderings. "California is an explosion, a social experiment, a
crash of people unlike anywhere else in the world."
Robert Harris, Capital Unity executive director, said the exhibits
will be finalized after a four-month process, and the design firm was
"just throwing (around) names" - such as Newdow - as placeholders.
He doubts an exhibit on Newdow would be part of the museum.
