Tom Stimpson works on installing exhibits at the Carter Presidential Museum and Library. The newly renovated space is scheduled to open Oct. 1. AJC/Jamie Gumbrecht

With about a week to go before it opens, the newly renovated Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum is a beautiful mess of construction equipment, unmounted artifacts and cutting-edge museum technology. Overnight, bare floors are carpeted; piles of wood and electronics become exhibits. Dozens of curators, managers, installers and staffers are there all day and night to aim LED lights, hang banners and put together the pieces of a $10 million, 5-month update.

Carter visited the museum as renovations began in May. AJC file photo

“Before, the museum was a ‘Don’t Touch’ museum,” director Jay Hakes said. No more.

As we walked through the 25,000-square foot space on Tuesday, we saw an interactive map table coming together, and the narrative of the president’s life emerging in the museum’s colors and form. Blank video screens stood ready to show films about the Carter Center’s missions. Schedules, diaries, recently declassified documents and multimedia storytelling will make up a commanding centerpiece about a typical day in the life of a U.S. president.

“At the end of that 11 minutes, people will be tired,” Hakes said of the exhibit. “This will be a nowhere-else-in-the-world kind of deal.”

I’ll be back to see it again next week when it’s a complete museum, and organizers say there will be no signs of this week’s mess. You can see it for yourself soon, too: it’s scheduled to open Oct. 1, Carter’s 85th birthday.

These are test images, but the huge screens will show a day in the life of a U.S. president — Dec. 11, 1978, a typical Monday during Carter's term. AJC/Jamie Gumbrecht

The 25,000-square foot space has gained even more exhibit space by adding visuals vertically. The seal to the right sat in museum storage for years. Now there's space for it. AJC/Jamie Gumbrecht

The black box to the right is the future home of Carter's Nobel Peace Prize. The quote from Carter to the left reads, "The bond of our common humanity is stronger than the divisiveness of our fears and prejudices." AJC/Jamie Gumbrecht