The Canadian Museum of Nature has reopened its west wing, having reached the halfway mark of an extensive and costly renovation project that is scheduled to finish in 2010. The wing underwent comprehensive renovations, including the construction of new fossil and mammal galleries and a temporary exhibition space.
The heritage building occupied by the museum is one of the oldest in Canada's capital, Ottawa. It was built in 1856 as a facility to display rocks, minerals, fossils, plants and anthropological artefacts. Like many other natural history museums in North America, it is about 60 years since its structure and contents have been seriously renovated.
The project is costing CDN$90m (£40m), and officials say it is on time and on budget. So far, two of the main focuses have been the preservation and restoration of the museum's mammal and dinosaur fossil galleries.
The museum's president, Joanne DiCosimo, says that while much of the content remains traditional, the contemporary aspect lies in its issues-based themes. 'People view natural history in relation to them and their lives,' she says. 'They don't think about the world in the way in which Darwin thought about the world. And what the museum does is all about environmental change through time. If you pick any area of it, that is what it is about.'
The new fossil gallery, called the Talisman Energy Fossil Gallery following a CDN$2m (£0.9m) donation from the oil company, exploits the strength of the museum's existing collection. It displays fossils from 50 million years ago and holds the most important collection of dinosaurs in Canada. The gallery examines the period during which dinosaurs became extinct and mammals emerged.
Steve Cumbaa, a research palaeontologist at the museum, says the updated gallery displays 75 per cent of the museum's fossil collection, including some important holotypes, which are the formal examples of a species. 'They used to be considered controversial, but we are displaying them in a protected environment that will prevent them from being damaged,' he says. 'We have also made them accessible to researchers.'
The mammal gallery is a combination of modern and contemporary because the museum decided to restore the dioramas it created during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. The public was surveyed about what it would like to see in the remodelled museum and the dioramas were found to be an essential part of the museum's image.
Christiane Saumur, the project manager of the mammal gallery, says the displays prompted a sense of nostalgia, and many Canadians want to show their children the dioramas they had enjoyed when they were young. The dioramas had to be dismantled and then put back together, which was challenging and very expensive.
'It is one of the few diorama collections of this calibre in North America and it really does represent a style in museology that is actually very hard to recreate,' says Saumur. 'The cost is quite prohibitive and the skills to create them are very limited.'
Interactive computer displays have been added to accompany the exhibits. Visitors can now learn about how animals have adapted, issues relating to climate change and the plights of certain animals, as well as the history of the dioramas. 'We are trying to show an ecosystem approach to all these things and show what happens as a result of dramatic climate and environmental change,' she says.
The east side, which is not yet completed, will feature a gallery with a water theme - something close to the country's heart as it has the world's largest supply of fresh water and the longest coastline. The details of the gallery have still to be finalised, although DiCosimo says the broad concepts have been agreed.
The east side will also have a gallery devoted to human nature consisting of human anatomy, physiology and people living in communities. 'When you look at the gallery constructs, it has the issues approach,' adds DiCosimo. 'It plays to the strengths of the collection - to what we have done in the past. But it reorients and brings in contemporary messages.'
With so much emphasis on climate change, its impact on the environment and the creatures that inhabit it, the museum's decision to accept money from Talisman Energy could be questioned, but DiCosimo says there is no conflict of interest with the Talisman gallery.
'Canada has a natural resource-based economy, so much of the target for the private sector funding involves companies that are making a living from forestry, mining, energy, gas, water control and regulation, and fishing,' she says.
'The conflict would come if a com-pany's contribution affected the content of what you present. The understanding is that the content is in complete control of the museum and the museum presents science and natural history.'
DiCosimo supports her argument by saying that climate change will be presented in terms of the best research of the day. The new exhibits will feature findings from government-employed researchers. 'About 70 per cent of research will be agreed by the scientific community and 30 per cent will be science that is debated,' she says.
'That means it has to be based on the best available information at the time, and you have to be prepared to change your content, which is one of the reasons the technology is so exciting. It allows you to do that. It is a lot harder to do when you have just spent CND$5m on a gallery that has immovable beasts in it.'
Unlike in the US, the Darwin versus creationism debate is not an issue for the museum, as it barely causes a ripple across Canada. 'We haven't had the same kind of organised protests by creationists,' says DiCosimo. 'We don't have any plans to take the concept and turn it into a public programme exhibit. It has not been an issue here.'
The renovation of the Canadian Museum of Nature has been modelled on solutions devised by other heritage museums. The content has been most inspired by the State Natural History Museum of North Carolina.
DiCosimo says: 'It opened a couple of years ago in a new facility. It has marvellous dioramas and the openness that we are working to achieve in these spaces. It has a sense in modern exhibit terms of being much closer to the elements, whether it is the collection or the models. There is much more intimacy between the people who visit and what they are looking at.'
The Ottawa museum, which is affectionately known by locals as 'the castle' because of its battlemented form, has undergone significant structural work.
Lead designer Bruce Kuwabara says one of the greatest challenges was updating the building to meet modern museum requirements, without ruining its charm. As the building is located in a seismically sensitive area of eastern Ontario, a steel support cage had to be inserted into each side.
'It was difficult to place the steel while still holding up the building,' says Kuwabara. 'Like liposuction, they removed a zone on the floor of the perimeter building and dropped a support through. This enabled a wall of air to be created as a dynamic buffer zone, which allows for a high level of environmental control.'
'You have to very careful,' adds Kuwabara. 'It is a bit like doing open-heart and plastic surgery simultaneously.'
The museum's vice-president, Maureen Dougan, says one of the most important additions to the museum was a shipping and receiving area. 'Although it was Canada's first purpose-built museum, it never had a shipping and receiving area,' she says. 'It pre-dated trucks, pest management control, conservation and taxidermy techniques as we see them today.'
Exhibits can now be managed on-site as they arrive - whether they require freeze-drying or pest removal. Staff no longer have to dismantl--e exhibits being stored in an external building so that they can be transported through the front entrance of the museum.
The renovation has also made the building more eco-friendly. The mechanical and electrical systems are now outside the main building, which helps reduce energy use. The boilers have been moved outside, creating a more efficient airflow system to support the dynamic buffer zone and the environmental conditions required by the museum.
Kuwabara says the fundamental character of the museum is the sense of openness, which he thinks is a psychological thing - a tipping-point for Canadians. 'The museum is both warm and impressive,' he says.
Monica Dobie is a freelance writer based in Ottawa
The heritage building occupied by the museum is one of the oldest in Canada's capital, Ottawa. It was built in 1856 as a facility to display rocks, minerals, fossils, plants and anthropological artefacts. Like many other natural history museums in North America, it is about 60 years since its structure and contents have been seriously renovated.
The project is costing CDN$90m (£40m), and officials say it is on time and on budget. So far, two of the main focuses have been the preservation and restoration of the museum's mammal and dinosaur fossil galleries.
The museum's president, Joanne DiCosimo, says that while much of the content remains traditional, the contemporary aspect lies in its issues-based themes. 'People view natural history in relation to them and their lives,' she says. 'They don't think about the world in the way in which Darwin thought about the world. And what the museum does is all about environmental change through time. If you pick any area of it, that is what it is about.'
The new fossil gallery, called the Talisman Energy Fossil Gallery following a CDN$2m (£0.9m) donation from the oil company, exploits the strength of the museum's existing collection. It displays fossils from 50 million years ago and holds the most important collection of dinosaurs in Canada. The gallery examines the period during which dinosaurs became extinct and mammals emerged.
Steve Cumbaa, a research palaeontologist at the museum, says the updated gallery displays 75 per cent of the museum's fossil collection, including some important holotypes, which are the formal examples of a species. 'They used to be considered controversial, but we are displaying them in a protected environment that will prevent them from being damaged,' he says. 'We have also made them accessible to researchers.'
The mammal gallery is a combination of modern and contemporary because the museum decided to restore the dioramas it created during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. The public was surveyed about what it would like to see in the remodelled museum and the dioramas were found to be an essential part of the museum's image.
Christiane Saumur, the project manager of the mammal gallery, says the displays prompted a sense of nostalgia, and many Canadians want to show their children the dioramas they had enjoyed when they were young. The dioramas had to be dismantled and then put back together, which was challenging and very expensive.
'It is one of the few diorama collections of this calibre in North America and it really does represent a style in museology that is actually very hard to recreate,' says Saumur. 'The cost is quite prohibitive and the skills to create them are very limited.'
Interactive computer displays have been added to accompany the exhibits. Visitors can now learn about how animals have adapted, issues relating to climate change and the plights of certain animals, as well as the history of the dioramas. 'We are trying to show an ecosystem approach to all these things and show what happens as a result of dramatic climate and environmental change,' she says.
The east side, which is not yet completed, will feature a gallery with a water theme - something close to the country's heart as it has the world's largest supply of fresh water and the longest coastline. The details of the gallery have still to be finalised, although DiCosimo says the broad concepts have been agreed.
The east side will also have a gallery devoted to human nature consisting of human anatomy, physiology and people living in communities. 'When you look at the gallery constructs, it has the issues approach,' adds DiCosimo. 'It plays to the strengths of the collection - to what we have done in the past. But it reorients and brings in contemporary messages.'
With so much emphasis on climate change, its impact on the environment and the creatures that inhabit it, the museum's decision to accept money from Talisman Energy could be questioned, but DiCosimo says there is no conflict of interest with the Talisman gallery.
'Canada has a natural resource-based economy, so much of the target for the private sector funding involves companies that are making a living from forestry, mining, energy, gas, water control and regulation, and fishing,' she says.
'The conflict would come if a com-pany's contribution affected the content of what you present. The understanding is that the content is in complete control of the museum and the museum presents science and natural history.'
DiCosimo supports her argument by saying that climate change will be presented in terms of the best research of the day. The new exhibits will feature findings from government-employed researchers. 'About 70 per cent of research will be agreed by the scientific community and 30 per cent will be science that is debated,' she says.
'That means it has to be based on the best available information at the time, and you have to be prepared to change your content, which is one of the reasons the technology is so exciting. It allows you to do that. It is a lot harder to do when you have just spent CND$5m on a gallery that has immovable beasts in it.'
Unlike in the US, the Darwin versus creationism debate is not an issue for the museum, as it barely causes a ripple across Canada. 'We haven't had the same kind of organised protests by creationists,' says DiCosimo. 'We don't have any plans to take the concept and turn it into a public programme exhibit. It has not been an issue here.'
The renovation of the Canadian Museum of Nature has been modelled on solutions devised by other heritage museums. The content has been most inspired by the State Natural History Museum of North Carolina.
DiCosimo says: 'It opened a couple of years ago in a new facility. It has marvellous dioramas and the openness that we are working to achieve in these spaces. It has a sense in modern exhibit terms of being much closer to the elements, whether it is the collection or the models. There is much more intimacy between the people who visit and what they are looking at.'
The Ottawa museum, which is affectionately known by locals as 'the castle' because of its battlemented form, has undergone significant structural work.
Lead designer Bruce Kuwabara says one of the greatest challenges was updating the building to meet modern museum requirements, without ruining its charm. As the building is located in a seismically sensitive area of eastern Ontario, a steel support cage had to be inserted into each side.
'It was difficult to place the steel while still holding up the building,' says Kuwabara. 'Like liposuction, they removed a zone on the floor of the perimeter building and dropped a support through. This enabled a wall of air to be created as a dynamic buffer zone, which allows for a high level of environmental control.'
'You have to very careful,' adds Kuwabara. 'It is a bit like doing open-heart and plastic surgery simultaneously.'
The museum's vice-president, Maureen Dougan, says one of the most important additions to the museum was a shipping and receiving area. 'Although it was Canada's first purpose-built museum, it never had a shipping and receiving area,' she says. 'It pre-dated trucks, pest management control, conservation and taxidermy techniques as we see them today.'
Exhibits can now be managed on-site as they arrive - whether they require freeze-drying or pest removal. Staff no longer have to dismantl--e exhibits being stored in an external building so that they can be transported through the front entrance of the museum.
The renovation has also made the building more eco-friendly. The mechanical and electrical systems are now outside the main building, which helps reduce energy use. The boilers have been moved outside, creating a more efficient airflow system to support the dynamic buffer zone and the environmental conditions required by the museum.
Kuwabara says the fundamental character of the museum is the sense of openness, which he thinks is a psychological thing - a tipping-point for Canadians. 'The museum is both warm and impressive,' he says.
Monica Dobie is a freelance writer based in Ottawa
