Natural History Museum offering £2.4m gallery refurbishment job

The Natural History Museum is looking for a design team to act as lead architect on the transformation of four of its most-visited galleries.

The £2.4m job will see the appointed team draw up refurbishment plans for the museum’s Western Galleries, which includes the Dinosaur Gallery, the Origins Gallery, the Old General Herbarium and the Swing Space.

Work is set to include creating two new lift and stair cores, toilets, a first-floor cafe, a Dino Shop, plant rooms, new ventilation and heating services.

The walkway running through the Dinosaur Gallery will also be dismantled and removed, the contents of the Botany Library will be decanted, and the internal fabric of the grade I-listed building restored where needed.

The job is set to run for at least five-and-a-half year and will cover RIBA stages two through seven, with the chosen team developing the base build design for the galleries and ancillary spaces while supervising other consultants working on MEP, accessibility and fire safety.

The team will also be asked to provide heritage, structural engineer, sustainability and principal design services on the scheme.

The fit-out of the galleries will comprise a second phase of the scheme and will be tendered separately.

The first works are expected to start in the Swing Space in Autumn 2027 and open in 2028, with the Botany Library and Old General Herbarium to reopen in 2029, the Dinosaur Gallery in 2030 and the Origins Gallery in 2031.

The museum has invited bidders to an online briefing session to be held on the week starting 4 May, which requires signing an NDA and returning it by 5pm this Friday. Further tender documents will then be circulated to interested bidders after 11 May.