< Back to News

NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM PROGRESS

MARCH 2017

Natural History Museum Progress

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.

RIBA HONOURS COMMITTEE PANEL CHOOSES ROYAL GOLD MEDAL WINNER

OCTOBER 2012

Niall McLaughlin was invited to be one of the six members of the RIBA Honours Committee Panel, a group selected to choose the winner of the Royal Gold Medal. The other members of the panel were architects Peter Clegg, Yvonne Farrell, Professor Adrian Forty, and Sarah Wigglesworth. The panel has nominated the Swiss architect Peter Zumthor as the 2013 recipient of the award.