YOUNGSTOWN — The Butler Institute of American Art is building a large vault facility to store some of its collection as part of an effort to regain accreditation it lost last year from the American Alliance of Museums.

The museum on Wick Avenue lost the prestigious accreditation largely because of storage.

“Storage is our issue,” said Louis A. Zona, the Butler’s executive director. “We’re converting gallery space and work space into the vault room.”

The city’s design review committee on Tuesday gave its approval for new windows as part of the museum’s renovation of what is being called the Blue Vault Room.

The vault room will be able to accommodate 13,000-square feet of hanging storage space for paintings, said Liz Hicks, the Butler’s permanent collections manager.

“With a collection of 22,000 pieces, a lot of objects either aren’t displayed or get displayed frequently and then get taken down,” she said. “This will give us storage space that we need.”

The project should be finished in the fall, Hicks said.

When the Butler will seek to regain accreditation from AAM hasn’t been determined, Hicks said.

“We’re going to get our accreditation back,” she said. “We’re on track to do that. We’re making progress. This is a lot. When we’re 100% confident and ready to follow through, we’ll have AAM come back.”

Hicks said: “By completing this room, we can renovate other areas. The completion of this will not be enough for us to apply for accreditation. We’ll renovate several more areas. We want to be leaders in art storage.”

The Butler, built in 1919, had AAM’s accreditation since 1989.

AAM states its accreditation mark, which it started in 1971, “offers high-profile, peer-based validation of your museum’s operations and impact. Accreditation increases your museum’s credibility and value to funders, policy makers, insurers, community and peers. Accreditation is a powerful tool to leverage change and help facilitate loans between institutions.”