Wichita ? World-renowned photographer Gordon Parks is urging city officials to hurry up and finalize plans for a new black heritage museum that would house some of his works.

The Kansas native said he would like to put the gift in his will but was concerned that the city was taking too long to settle on a site, which would jump-start efforts to raise money for a new Kansas African American Museum.

“I’m 91,” he said in a phone interview from his New York City apartment. “I don’t have a lot of strength and time to deal with these things. I don’t know what to do until they come up with something definite. Do they have land? Will they have a building? I don’t have anything to move on. Wichita has to make some kind of decision.”

Parks’ work, which is credited with exploring and narrowing the country’s racial divide, would be the centerpiece of the new museum.

The museum is housed in a 1917 building, the former Calvary Baptist Church. But the structure is deteriorating, is environmentally unsafe for precious artifacts and is nearly surrounded by the Sedgwick County Jail.

Flooding in October caused about $100,000 worth of damage to the building and its contents. The museum already owns 29 pieces of framed art by Parks, valued at $1 million. The pieces, which are in storage, weren’t damaged by the flooding.

Eric Key, the museum’s executive director, said he was pursuing additional pieces largely held in Parks’ apartment. They include photos, negatives, manuscripts, a collection of books, the typewriter Parks used to write his best-known literary work, “The Learning Tree,” as well as his desk and desk chair.

“I want to recreate his working space in a wing of the new museum,” Key said. “The value of those pieces is infinite.”

But several issues remain uncertain, including the location of the museum. City officials say they have found a spot for a new museum north of downtown near City Hall. But museum board members say they would prefer land in the museum district along the Arkansas River.

“It’s more in the flow of traffic along Museum Row,” Key said. “It’s along the walking trail showcasing the Indian Center and the Wichita Art Museum and Exploration Place.”

The scope of the project also is up in the air.

Key has been discussing a $51 million capital campaign designed to build a $28 million facility along the river. A feasibility study commissioned last January says there is community appetite for a new black cultural center but suggests waiting on fund raising until the economy improves and scaling back to a $10 million capital campaign that includes a $5 million to $7 million new facility.

During a recent conference call, Key told Parks he wanted to rent a U-Haul truck, drive to New York and pack up an assortment of the author’s items.

Parks said he needed concrete plans, not transportation.

“Just come and get it,” he said, “if Wichita gets itself together.”