With a history of a rich culture of people emigrating from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden to the Pacific Northwest and prominently to Ballard, the Nordic Heritage Museum has become a pillar in Ballard's community.

But after 30 years in its cozy residential location, this place of Ballard's Nordic roots is slowly preparing itself to make a move to Ballard's mainstream Market Street sometime around the year 2014.

The Nordic Heritage Museum has been located in the Seattle School's 1907 red brick school building that originally was Daniel Webster Elementary School. Residing in what they call the "heart of Seattle's Scandinavian community," Webster School was known for educating many generations of Scandinavian and other immigrants who came through Ballard. It was closed in 1979 due to enrollment decline.

In 1980, the Nordic museum acquired a lease on the property and re-opened the building and housed what has become a locally and nationally acclaimed institution.

"This building has served the museum very well for the last 29 almost 30 years and the intention of the museum was to acquire this as our permanent home," said Eric Nelson, executive director of the Nordic Heritage Museum.

In the late 1990s after a few attempts to buy the building from the school district, the museum decided it would never be able to purchase the building because the school district did not want to sell it. The museum went onto the second phase and identified a new site to relocate and build a new museum.

In 2003, the Nordic Museum purchased a piece of property between 26th and 28th streets on the south side of Market Street.

"The thing about being in the school is that we do have these classrooms, but one of the problems is that the exhibits are split up into classrooms, and we'd really prefer larger spaces," Nelson said. "Now that we've purchased a piece of property we've hired architects and designers and are in the intention to move. The vision is to build and create a new world-class museum right in the heart of Ballard. It'll be a beautiful location and we wanted to make sure the architecture of the museum would be an embodiment of the Nordic American experience."

The museum has brought in the likes of museum consulting and exhibition design firm Ralph Applebaum and Associates and Mithun, a sustainable design and urbanism architecture firm, which Nelson had said to be one of the earmarks of Nordic design. They're also working with Finnish designer, Juhani Pallasmaa who's built many museums in Finland and is the director of the national museum of architecture. He will be working closely with Mithun.

The current building is just less than 50,000 square feet so they are looking to create a larger building with a bigger footprint and more amenities and space so exhibits aren't as chopped up said Nelson. They are expecting a larger stage, bigger auditorium, a more spacious lobby and a caf/ and gift shop facing Market Street.

Nelson said there is a strong desire to maintain the sense of community with Ballard and the museum and to also really professionalize and take it up a notch.

Since the school district has doubled the museum's rent in the last year, they still have been very accommodating giving the museum the time they need to stay in their present location until they get their plans and concepts in order for the big move in a few years.

David Tucker, spokesman for Seattle Public Schools, said that the building is in surplus status however they are anticipating the Nordic Museum to stay at the location for about five to seven more years.

Nelson explains that the planning for the new museum is underway with concepts currently being developed. They are expecting to present the concepts to the Nordic Heritage Museum Board of Trustees towards the end of September, where the board will then decide if the design is the direction they want to go forward with.

"We're going to need to raise quite a bit of money, but the campaign has been functioning at a fairly quiet phase," said Nelson.

Currently they have raised about $14 million, which includes the purchase of the property, the city has pledged $1 million in support and the state just released $1.5 million for the preconstruction of the new building.

They are beginning their plan to leap forward with a big campaign to raise more money and finding out ways to make that money. However until the concepts are approved they are not going to know a solid amount of how big of an account they are dealing with.

"We have had an overall support of the museum in professionalizing and taking this kind of step," said Nelson. There's always been a strong sense and commitment at this museum and that this museum has always been a community center for the community and will continue to fulfill this function down on Market Street in a more visible location that's actually designed to be a museum instead of a school house."

The neighbors have expressed to the museum that they will miss them at their current location so it's been a mixed amount of emotions for them. They see themselves as a cozy, warm, friendly environment that they as a museum reflect their community. A challenge they feel is ahead of them is making sure the new museum has the same Nordic sensibility, making those who come and visit feel at home.

With concepts being designed and ideas being made, Nelson said it's still premature to speak definitively about the project.

"We're trying to be very considerate of Ballard and how the (new) museum will fit in it."

Allison Espiritu may be reached at 783-1244 or allisone@robinsonnews.com.