Museum Expansion Project

Thom Mayne is the only American in the past 16 years (since 1991) to be selected for architecture’s most prestigious award, the Pritzker Prize.  This achievement capped a three-decade career in which Mayne has received more than 100 awards and honors from across the world.   Mayne is founder and principal of the Los Angeles-based firm Morphosis.  A dedicated educator for the past 35 years, Mayne also is co-founder of the influential Southern California Institute of Architecture, a tenured professor at UCLA, and a visiting teacher/lecturer who travels across the globe.

Mayne’s most prominent projects include the Phare Tower in Paris;  the Federal Building in San Francisco, Calif.; the Wayne L. Morse U.S. Courthouse in Eugene, Ore.; the University of Cincinnati Campus Recreation Center in Cincinnati, Ohio; the Hypo Alpe-Adria Bank in Klagenfurt, Austria; and the Diamond Ranch High School in Pomona, Calif.

Plans have been in the works for several years to build a new state-of-the-art museum to supplement the existing Fair Park facilities.  The need for additional space became even more critical after the 2006 merger, unlike any in the nation, of three cultural institutions -- the Dallas Museum of Natural History (est. 1936), The Science Place (est. 1946) and the Dallas Children’s Museum (est. 1995). 

The new facility will dramatically increase space so the Museum can showcase a wider spectrum of its valuable collections, incorporate modern technology, host world-class traveling exhibitions, and greatly expand its educational programs for school children and the general public.

The Museum of Nature & Science will be located on a 4.7-acre site at the northwest corner of Woodall Rodgers Freeway and Field Street adjacent to Victory Park. 

The facility will be walking distance from the American Airlines Center; W Hotel; and House of Blues; and just minutes from the Dallas Arts District, the largest urban cultural district in the country; the Sixth Floor Museum; the Trinity River Corridor Project; and intown districts such as Uptown and Turtle Creek. 

Visitors will have easy access to the Museum by riding DART light rail trains to Victory Station at the American Airlines Center; by traveling on any of the nearby roads, including Interstate 35E, Central Expressway and the North Dallas Tollway; or by using the Katy Trail pedestrian/bicycle paths.

The land has been purchased, and groundbreaking is projected to take place in 2009. 

Upon completion, the Museum of Nature & Science is expected to emerge as one of the region’s top destinations, attracting more than 1 million visitors annually.

The Museum has more than $45 million in capital committed to date towards its current goal of $155 million, which will fund the site acquisition, exhibition planning and design, construction of the new building, education programs and an endowment. Major lead gifts include $10 million from Hunt Petroleum, $10 million from The Rees-Jones Foundation, $5 million from the Hoglund Foundation, and $2.5 million from the Corrigan Family.

The Museum of Nature & Science is currently accepting financial donations.  To learn more, please call Anne Haskel at 972-201-0591 or email her at ahaskel@natureandscience.org.

For more information about the Museum of Nature & Science, go to www.natureandscience.org or call 214-428-5555.