Prime Highlights:

Ruth Taylor Kidd successfully headed the renovation and expansion program of Folger Shakespeare Library, located on Capitol Hill, that totaled to an amount of $80.5 million.

The project added 12,000 square feet and included an Adams Pavilion, two exhibit halls, a series of plazas, gardens, and accessible café.

Despite all the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, Kidd and her team adjusted, ensured minimal delay in time, and completed the project successively.

Key Background:

Ruth Taylor Kidd was promoted in 2018 to Chief Financial Officer of the Folger Shakespeare Library and successfully oversaw the completion of a $80.5 million expansion of the historic institution’s Capitol Hill building, which included management of the renovation of the 97,000 square-foot facility designed by Paul Philippe Cret in 1932. This would include all areas of bidding, pricing, financing, and processing all permits needed for the addition.

The addition built included the brand-new Adams Pavilion, with additional 12,000 square feet of space accommodating two exhibit halls, outdoor plazas, and gardens as well as the Quill & Crumb café in the Great Hall, designed to have more access entrances and facilities where more people welcomed to visit at the site.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic forced the project into delay since January 2020, when the construction was expected to begin, leadership by Kidd kept the project on track. The team adapted to the situation by re-sequencing construction phases to minimize delays and completed the capital campaign with $80 million in donations from some of its leading donors, such as Richard L. Adams, Jacqueline Mars, and Stuart and Mimi Rose.

The pandemic did not reverse the progress as the team had already incorporated touchless technology, air handling systems, and other pandemic-related upgrades due to the library’s fragile collection. Strategic planning also helped mitigate supply chain disruptions and inflation, with a fixed-cost contract and favorable financing secured before interest rates rose.

The newly enlarged library, re-opened for summer 2024, will now be able to display all of its 82 copies of Shakespeare’s First Folio which were not accessible to audiences previously. Kidd, who has never had any particular interest in Shakespeare herself, found that an interest in historic preservation and the presentation of museums was deepened through the effective realization of such a significant undertaking.