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38 n e w h a v e n B I Z | M a r c h 2 0 2 0 | n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m By Melissa Nicefaro Midnight at the Museum Yale's Peabody goes dark this spring for a three- year, $200 million restoration that will render it bigger and brighter than ever A R T S & C U LT U R E I t will be business as usual as Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History undergoes a $200 million renovation beginning this spring. School and camp visits will continue at the Yale West Campus in Orange. Scientists will be busy off-site researching natural history with a collection of some 13 million items. And the dinosaurs are on their way to Ontario to be remounted to better reflect the most up-to-date scientific knowledge (the tail of the Great Hall's Brontosaurus, for example, had been mounted upside down for nearly a century). e renovation, some 15 years in planning, is being funded by a landmark $160 million gi from Edward P. Bass (Yale '67) of Fort Worth, Tex. is milestone commitment is among the most generous gis to Yale and is the largest known gi ever made to a U.S. natural history museum. Centerbrook Architects will lead the design phase, working with Reich + Petch Design International of Toronto, while Turner Con- struction will oversee the build phase. When work is completed in 2023, the museum will feature 50 percent more gallery space and new lighting, audio-visual and casework systems. e Peabody will be able to support an even more dynamic exhibit program, featuring a greater diversity of voices and perspectives. With 15,000 square feet of new galleries across three floors, visitors will be able to view objects from the collections that have never been ex- hibited before. Display systems will be designed to make it easy to rotate content and provide new exhibits. Founded in 1866, the Peabody is one of the oldest and largest university-based natural history collections in the world. e reno- vation means the vast collection of more than 13 million objects and specimens will be made accessible to a wider range of faculty, students Peabody director Skelly says his goal is one day to make the museum free to the thousands of visitors young and old who pass through its doors each year. RENDERING/CENTERBROOK ARCHITECTS & PLANNERS Architect's rendering of the new construction, which will house 15,000 square feet of new gallery space and connect the Peabody's existing footprint to Science Hill.

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