John F. Kennedy Center page 6 of 6 16. Since you are going to perform a life cycle operations review for the Center, have you investigated the possibility of converting from all electric to a more cost effective energy source such as gas? Yes. Prior to initiating the replacement of the original (1971) failing, obsolete, and inefficient chillers in the Center's central refrigeration plant; a comprehensive study of alternative cooling technologies and energy alternatives was made by Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, architects and engineers, and Environmental Systems Design, mechanical/electrical engineers. The study found that none of the energy alternatives for cooling could be obtained at less cost than replacing the existing chillers with highly efficient and compact electric chillers of optimal capacity. In connection with the preparation of an energy conservation plan, Environmental Systems Design is currently evaluating natural gas as a fuel source for electrical heating systems. --end- TUESDAY, APRIL 23, 1996. SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION WITNESSES I. MICHAEL HEYMAN, SECRETARY, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION J. DENNIS O'CONNOR, PROVOST L. CAROLE WHARTON, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF PLANNING, MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET RICHARD H. RICE, JR., SENIOR FACILITIES SERVICES OFFICER MICHAEL H. ROBINSON, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK OPENING REMARKS Mr. REGULA [presiding]. Well, we'll get the committee hearing started. We're happy to welcome you, Dr. Heyman, and hear the story of one of America's favorite institutions. Mr. YATES. Greatest institutions. Mr. HEYMAN. Thank you. Mr. REGULA. Your full statement will be made a part of the record. Any summary that you'd like to share with the committee will be very appreciated. Mr. HEYMAN. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Good morning. It's very nice to be here. Mr. Yates, it's a pleasure to see you also. First, I'd just like to remind you who is at the table. Richard Rice, who is our Senior Facilities Services Officer, Dennis O'Connor, the new Provost of the institution, Constance Newman, of course, the Under Secretary, and Carole Wharton, who is the Director of Planning, Management and Budget. Two of us are planning to speak, myself and Mr. Rice. We're all here ready to answer questions. I am happy to have had the opportunity Mr. YATES. Connie Newman isn't going to answer any questions? Mr. HEYMAN. Yes. She will too. AMERICA'S SMITHSONIAN I want to talk just briefly about the excitement of this 150th anniversary and the whole conception that is getting larger of the Smithsonian without walls. It's really a concentrated push. The cornerstone of this is the traveling exhibition, which I'm happy will be both in Columbus, Ohio, and in Chicago during its tour. So you will have an opportunity there to see it. I am very grateful, Mr. Chairman, that you were there to help inaugurate it in Los Angeles. We were in Los Angeles for five and a half weeks. We had about 320,000 visitors. The only complaints that we heard were that people had to stand in line. It was difficult to get in because of the crowd. In part that was a problem that we had not antici pated. We thought the flow-through would be much more rapid, but people wanted to stay there longer than we thought. They really stood for long periods of time and looked at some of the objects on display. They must have been bringing to those objects quite a bit of their own sense of history and their own information. Mr. YATES. Does the exhibit have a catalogue? Mr. HEYMAN. Yes. It does. We have not given you that, but we will make that available. It's a fine catalogue. Mr. REGULA If you'll yield, Mr. Yates, I was at the opening in L.A. It's a great exhibit. Mr. YATES. I understand it's wonderful. Mr. REGULA. In fact, you can't get all the school groups in that want to come in, as I understand it. Mr. HEYMAN. Well, if I remember properly in Los Angeles, we had 45,000 school children, all of whom had been prepared to some extent or another with regard to what they would see. We had some printed materials. We had a teacher's night there, and we had over 3,000 teachers who had come to see the exhibit. Plus the fact that we brought a number of scholars from the Institution, either curators or people who do research, who gave lectures in a variety of places, including public schools and in libraries and in university settings. We're hoping to be able to continue that every place we go. Mr. REGULA. So you have an outreach. Mr. HEYMAN. Real outreach, yes. We have real outreach. Mr. REGULA. How is Kansas City going? It is open right now. Mr. HEYMAN. It is the same kind of a story as Los Angeles. About 12,000 a day go through it. When we opened a couple of weeks ago in Kansas City, before anybody had seen it, there were already 98,000 reservations. It's really extraordinary the kind of publicity that it's been getting, which has really informed so many people of its imminence and eminence. So people are in fact coming in droves. Mr. YATES. It's the cardinal of exhibitions. Mr. HEYMAN. It is. Mr. REGULA. As I understand it, there's no charge except to ride the carousel. Mr. HEYMAN. That's right. There is a handling charge if you want to reserve tickets through a ticket system, but otherwise, there's no charge for admission to the show. We do hope people will purchase much in the museum store, and so far, they have been doing well. Thus, we have been doing well. Mr. REGULA. I want to tell you, Mr. Yates, the carousel is absolutely the most magnificent carousel you have ever laid eyes on. I don't know who did the animals and all the various features, but it is a beautiful piece of work. Mr. HEYMAN. Well, it's just grand. We have also had one big CBS special-we will have our second one at the beginning of May. It's really a glorious TV show. It says a lot about our research activity, especially overseas. The next one will have some on research and will also be doing things with objects in the collection. LOCATIONS OF SMITHSONIAN FACILITIES Mr. REGULA. In how many different locations do you have permanent facilities, like for example, Panama and you have the National Zoo facility out at Front Royal where you raise the exotic animals for zoos around the country. How many different such locations are there? MS. NEWMAN. Let me just count it. I think it's six. Mr. YATES. Do you consider Suitland a part of Washington? Mr. HEYMAN. Six. It really depends on how you count. We've got approximately-it depends on again how you count it. We have 16 museums and galleries, some of which are obviously in New York. We have four major research institutes in different places, Panama, Cambridge, MA. Then the Cambridge operation has telescopes and settings in both Arizona and Hawaii. Mr. YATES. You have one in Florida. Mr. HEYMAN. We have Linkport in Florida, which is part of the Natural History Museum. So it's hard to count, but it's fairly pervasive in terms of location, especially of the research facilities. Then, of course, we have the large one at Front Royal, that's an adjunct of the Zoo and does an awful lot with exotic animals, including the nurturing of endangered species and then taking those endangered species out to their prior habitats and hoping they are going to re-propagate in those vicinities. Then SERC obviously on the Chesapeake that does an awful lot of work on riparian matters. Mr. REGULA. Do you still have the problem of the hunt down at Front Royal? I remember when Mr. Yates was chairman that we had the hearing on that subject. Mr. HEYMAN. We did it again this year at SERC, but it's no problem as far as I know. Nobody has noted it. I wish that it would continue that way. So part of this outreach is the traveling 150th exhibition and obviously the location of all of these. SMITHSONIAN SESQUECENTENNIAL The second thing we're going to do for the 150th is have a great big birthday party on the Mall. It's going to be quite elaborate. It's going to be on August 10th, which is the actual date of the anniversary of the passage of the statute creating us. I hope Members and staff and families think about coming, because it really will be a great party. Mr. YATES. I don't know that you are going to get many, because I think August is the congressional recess period. Mr. REGULA. Yes. Worse than that, it's the Republican convention. [Laughter.] us. Mr. YATES. That's true. Mr. REGULA. But there do have to be surrogates for the rest of Mr. HEYMAN. Need I say less. Mr. YATES. I hope to be in Chicago. August is the only month when it doesn't snow there. [Laughter.] Mr. HEYMAN. I do want you to know that all of these are being funded by other than appropriated funds. So all of this is |