British Museum World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre | Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners

Located in the north-west corner of the Museum’s Bloomsbury estate, the WCEC is one of the largest redevelopment projects in the Museum’s 260 year history. The Centre will provide a new public exhibitions gallery, state-of-the-art laboratories and studios, world class stores for the collection, as well as facilities to support an extensive UK and international loan programme. This will rationalise and greatly improve the Museum’s operations on-site, and modernise facilities ‘behind the scenes’. These will allow the Museum to extend support to our UK and International partners in terms of increasing capacity for staff training and joint projects. The building consists of five pavilions (one of which is sunk into the ground) and the design is sensitive to the British Museum’s existing architecture, connecting to the historic building whilst maintaining its own identity. The exhibitions gallery is due to open in early March 2014 with a new exhibition devoted to the Vikings (supported by BP). It is anticipated the conservation studios, science laboratories, loans hub and stores will be fitted out and occupied by summer 2014. The total cost of the project is £135 million. The Linbury Trust, established by John Sainsbury (Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover KG), and the Monument Trust, established by Simon Sainsbury have together committed £25 million towards the project, one of the largest gifts to the arts in the UK in recent decades, which will be used to fund the exhibition gallery. The Heritage Lottery Fund has committed £10 million towards the project. Other significant benefactors include the Wolfson Foundation, the Garfield Weston Foundation, the A.G. Leventis Foundation and the family of Constantine Leventis, the Clothworkers’ Foundation, the Fidelity U.K. Foundation, Sir Siegmund Warburg’s Voluntary Settlement, the Band Trust and others as well as continued support from the Department for Culture Media and Sport (worth £22.5 million over 4 years). A fundraising campaign from the British Museum Members is underway. Announcing progress on the project, British Museum Director Neil MacGregor said “I am delighted that the World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre has reached this exciting stage of construction. It will provide world class facilities that will allow the British Museum to ensure the care and understanding of its collections for future generations as well as present exhibitions that will continue the success of shows such as First Emperor and Life and death in Pompeii and Herculaneum. The new Collections Management Hub will also mean that the Museum is even better equipped to manage loans to and from the Museum continuing to share the collection with partners around the UK and the world.” “We are immensely proud to be involved in the latest significant step in the 260 year development of the British Museum estate. The World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre represents a vitally important combination of a purpose-built exhibition gallery and a celebration of the amazing behind-the-scenes activities. These facilities will be contained in a bespoke 21st century building that provides the next stage of the museum’s evolution.” Graham Stirk, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners Paul Davey, Project Manager at Mace said “Mace has been involved in some of London’s most iconic developments including the Great Court at the British Museum and so we were excited to be appointed by the Museum again to construction manage this highly prestigious architectural scheme. With construction remaining on schedule, the WCEC will provide important new facilities for the Museum and is a development Mace is proud to be a key part of.”