Amherst College Beneski Earth Sciences Bldg. & Museum of Ntl. History
Location
Amherst, MA / United States
Completed
2006
Total Square Footage
56,000 GSF
PROGRAM COMPONENTS
Geology, Natural History Museum, Research Labs, Teaching Labs
Amherst College’s Freshman Quad Master Plan prompted the relocation of the Earth Sciences Building and the Museum of Natural History. The new site, overlooking a valley, offered the opportunity to put the geological sciences on display for those traversing the main pathways in this part of the campus. The building’s articulation and use of materials reinterprets the campus’ architectural context in a manner both sympathetic and challenging.
Students move seamlessly between state-of-the-art teaching labs and the new museum, which exhibits vertebrate and invertebrate paleontology, minerals and other geologic specimens and anthropological material. The museum’s collection of mammoth, mastodon and Irish elk skeletons is prominently visible at night through large glass openings that afford dramatic views into and out of the three-level museum space.
Photography: © Warren Jagger Photography; © Edua Wilde
