History of the building
The LNMH Museum Storage is part of the Museum Storage Facility located at Pulka iela 8, Pārdaugava, Riga, where the Latvian National Museum of History, Latvian National Museum of Art, Latvian National Museum of Literature and Music, and Riga Film Museum keep their collections.
Its construction started in 2016; the building was completed on 12 November 2019 and officially opened on 11 December.
The facility was designed and built specifically to serve the needs of museums. The building meets the highest requirements for the security and storage of museum assets and houses more than two million items of the National Museums Collection. The building features large façade areas with a small number of windows. The ceiling height and wide doorways allow for large objects, while smaller items can be placed in two-level storage spaces. The storage rooms are climate-controlled and safeguarded by the largest automated gaseous fire suppression system in the Baltics.
The total area of this storage facility is 30,000 square metres, of which LNMH occupies approximately 9,000. Its architects were inspired by the 19th-century Pulka Street army barracks and took note of the contour of the nearby Dzegužkalns Hill. The shape of the building, with its hill-like roof planes of varying heights and pitches, resembles the hilly topography.