Ennead Architects and KSS Architects have unveiled design for a new fossil park museum in New Jersey. 

Called Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park Museum, the 65-acre fossil park is designed for Rowan University which will provide a unique place for exploration, preservation, and education. 

The groundbreaking for the project was celebrated over the weekend at the site in Mantua Township, New Jersey with leading paleontologist Dr. Kenneth Lacovara, executive director of the Fossil Park, U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross, and donors Jean and Ric Edelman

Within the 65-acre fossil park, there will be a museum that will be perched above a four-acre former marl quarry where, within its muddy depths, 66-million-year-old marine and terrestrial fossils record the last moments of the dinosaur world.

The 44,000 square foot (4,087-square-metre) museum, centered around exploration, preservation, and education, will feature an integrated design filled with immersive exhibits, surrounded by a network of nature trails and the quarry, where visitors can actively dig for fossils, alongside researchers working to uncover new information about the events that led to the world’s fifth mass extinction.

As Ennead Architects explains, “the Edelman Fossil Park Museum will be the largest public net zero emissions building in New Jersey and the first largest Living Building Challenge (LBC) building to achieve net zero energy in the state.” 

Led by Ennead Design Partner Thomas J. Wong, Ennead Architects is closely working with KSS Architects, led by KSS Partner Matthew McChesney, along with exhibit designers Gallagher & Associates and landscape designers SEED Design/Yaki Miodovnik.

“When conceptualizing a design for the Edelman Fossil Park Museum, we drew inspiration from the incredibly unique nature of the site, as a window to another time on earth located in the most unlikely of places,” said Thomas J. Wong.