Taking a lunch break yesterday at the Capitol where he was soliciting the Legislature for some funding — and the way his luck is running, he'll probably get it — Peter Giles paused long enough to shed a little light on how he was able to pull off "Mission Impossible."
Namely, getting a $10.2 million bond approved by the Salt Lake City Council that means The Leonardo science and technology museum will become a permanent reality.
For years, ever since the Salt Lake City Library vacated its premises on 600 South in favor of the new building half-a-block away, The Leonardo has been a figment of the imagination of museum lovers who have envisioned turning the old library space into an exhibition hall.
The visions were fine until every proposal ran into the reality snag of "It's Going to Cost How Much?!"
Then Giles was hired as executive director last August and suddenly, six months later, in the midst of an economy in free fall, The Leonardo is finally forging forward.
So how did he pull it off?
While modestly insisting he shouldn't get all the credit, Giles said it basically boiled down to this:
A project that used to have a price tag of $34 million now has a price tag of $17 million.
Even in the current recession, 50 percent off is a good deal.
The biggest hurdle was the building. Whereas previous plans called essentially for demolition, Giles saw an existing building that would do just fine for a new museum.
With the aid of board member and architect Allen Roberts, renovation plans were drawn up that cut building expenses from $19 million to $12 million.
Next, Giles reduced the previous business plan of $15 million to $5 million.
Last week, the Salt Lake City Council said it liked his math and released the $10.2 million in bond money — the remainder will be raised through donations.
"It's been quite the six months," Giles said yesterday. "Until last week, we never knew if it was going to happen. Now the opportunity is ours to work with the community and create something really meaningful."
The Leonardo, said Giles, will "unite the two hemispheres of your brain, the creative right side and the practical left side," through exhibitions of science, technology and art.
"If you're alive, you're into one of those two areas," he said.
Projected completion date is 2010 — early in the year if you're a left-brainer; maybe a little later if you're a right-brainer.
For Giles himself, The Leonardo has been a reunion of sorts. He was born and raised in Salt Lake City, in The Avenues, until the age of 10 when his father was transferred to San Francisco. He spent his teenage years in the Bay Area before returning to Utah to get a bachelor's degree in history at Brigham Young University.
He later received a Master of Public Administration degree at the University of Pittsburgh before embarking on a career creating and building museums. He's spent most of his life in the Silicon Valley in California, where he was involved with The Tech Museum of Innovation, a highly acclaimed facility in San Jose.
Six years ago, The Leonardo put Giles on its initial advisory board because of his expertise in museum development and his Salt Lake City connection. Last April, The Leonardo named him director of program strategy, a part-time consulting position that ultimately catapulted him into the executive director's chair this past August when Mary Tull stepped down.
"I seem to have come full circle," said the former and now current Salt Laker, seemingly as surprised as anyone at the sudden change of events in his life and his address.
Giles' great-grandfather was a Mormon handcart pioneer, and when he was a kid, he remembers his parents would take him downtown to the handcart memorial to remind him of his roots.
Now he can do the same for his grandchildren — and swing them around to the city's new right-brain/left-brain museum while he's at it.
Lee Benson's column runs Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com