As the leading visual art institution in the Pacific Northwest, the Seattle Art Museum (SAM)—founded in 1933—draws on its global collections, powerful exhibitions, and dynamic programs to provide unique educational opportunities benefiting the Seattle region and beyond. With a strong foundation of Asian art to noteworthy collections of African and Oceanic art, Northwest Coast Native American art, European and American art, and modern and contemporary art, the strength of SAM’s collection of over 25,000 objects lies in its diversity.

Funding from the Frankenthaler Climate Initiative will support modernizing and integrating our current Building Management System (BMS), a legacy Schneider TAC Xenta BMS originally installed in 2007, to Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure Building Operation (EBO) 2024 intelligent building management platform. This project is urgent, as SAM’s current BMS is antiquated, with some hardware components failing and the software unable to interact with new technological services. With an entire building upgrade estimated to take five years, this two-year project phase will focus on taking the site off the TAC platform, and converting and replacing front end connected services to the EBO platform. Schneider Electric will install the EBO system by performing a planned, phased-in modernization of our existing TAC BMS; this process will allow SAM to run a single front end interface and conduct a methodical integration with limited downtime. The new BMS platform, with a centralized control center and technical ability to incorporate future upgrades, is the foundation for building a greener museum with its improved energy efficiency and lower carbon footprint.