You might be seeing a lot more natural history in the future.
Announced in December 2012, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History declared plans to expand and renovate the pre-existing building.

Glenda Bogar, associate director of communications said that the new project is still in the planning and fundraising stage; in March of this year they hired a project design team, including a team of architects. This team will be undergoing a series of intense workshops to plan with the space they have, and space where they can expand.

Also under consideration are collections currently in storage and ways of incorporating those, although the collections are unfortunately not shared with the public yet.

The goal for the project is to be completed in 2020, when the museum will be a hundred years old. By then, most current Case Western Reserve University students will be off and graduated…hopefully.

The museum will stay open during the renovation, and while we won’t have a backstage pass to the construction (for obvious safety reasons) the museum wants visitors to know its plans, once they are defined. There will also be workshops for the visitors, asking what they would like to see.

As far as where exactly everything is going, a lot of details are still under wraps. Different sections of the museum had information involving their respective locations.

Sue Divito, who works at the gift shop, is excited about the renovation because of the increased traffic to the store.

“[The renovation] promises to put us in a position to be seen,” Divito said.

The wildlife exhibit will be on the other side of the store, which Sue thinks will make the gift shop a focal point.

A worker in admissions, Olivia Quinn, knew that the main entrance was going to be moved during construction. She thinks that the renovation is exciting.

“The museum is going to be refreshed,” she said. “It has looked like this for a long time.”

Stay tuned, as the museum will be releasing the master design plan in December of this year.