British Museum Gets Approval for World 
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| The British Museum (interior). © The Trustees of the British Museum. |
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| Rendered view of the proposed World Conservation and Exhibitions Center on Montague Place. Image courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum. |
Conservation and Exhibitions Center
By STAN PARCHIN
December 18, 2009
After some revisions, the Trustees of the
British Museum announced today that London's Camden Council granted planning permission for the institution's new 17,000-square-meter World Conservation and Exhibitions Center dedicated to the preservation, research, display and lending of objects from the BM's permanent collection. Work on the £135 million facility, designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, is to begin in January 2010 and be completed in 2013.
The center, finished in specially produced glass and traditional stone, will be located in the British Museum's northwest corner. It will provide a much-needed 1,000-square-meter gallery for special exhibitions (accessible from the Great Court), modern conservation and science research laboratories, an objects management location for the museum's domestic and international loan programs and state-of-the-art storage for the study collection. Modern scientific equipment that requires specific lighting and a vibration-free environment will be situated in the building's lowest level to ensure optimum performance.