With the completion of the new planetarium and exhibition centre for the Royal Observatory, Greenwich (where MRC had been project adviser), the National Maritime Museum decided to improve the archive and collection facilities in the main museum. For such an important World Heritage Site – undoubtedly Britain’s most complete Baroque urban setting – the museum asked us to advise on the appointment of appropriate architects. We immediately sensed that the project – although then quite modest – would attract worldwide interest and recommended an international two-stage design competition.
The Copenhagen-based firm CF Møller Architects was selected from an international shortlist, which also included one US and two UK architects. Following the appointment of the new museum Director and the largest private donation to a UK museum of £20 million by Sammy Ofer, we led a complete reappraisal of the museum’s brief, leading to new concept linked to Greenwich Park and a new entrance for the museum.
We coordinated the strategy for planning and listed building consent and reinforced the team with the appointment of an executive architect to complement CF Møller’s management of the design. We are currently appointed as project manager to deliver the new wing before 2011 and are carrying out a review of the spaces liberated by the eventual move into the new wing.
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