Níall McLaughlin
Architects

NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM PROGRESS

MARCH 2017

Below are some from the Natural History Museum site showing the scaffold ‘tunnel’ going up at the Museum. This is the framework required to lift, manipulate, and move the blue whale skull into position in a few weeks.

Though the main hall has had a sperm whale in it before, this was only around 15m long. In contrast, the blue whale, the largest known animal to have ever existed, is about 30m long once assembled.

Unfortunately, due to the various extensions and alterations to the Museum over time, the skull can only come in via the front doors. And – much like a very large, very heavy, very valuable sofa – it’s a case of squeezing it in at strange angles.

WOLFSON BUILDING EXTENSION COMPLETE

JANUARY 2013

The extension and refurbishment of the Wolfson Building in Oxford is now complete. The Grade II Listed building, originally designed by Arup Associates in the 1960s, forms part of Somerville College in Oxford. The extension provides the college with additional gathering space in the hall on the ground floor and gives the building a clearer presence on the College’s main quadrangle.