Making a Splash

edited by Sheila Kim -- Interior Design, 5/1/2003 12:00:00 AM

Dinosaur skeletons and the like have long been the American Museum of Natural History's stock in trade. Lately, however, the New York institution has been making waves on the architecture scene. Following the successful 2000 opening of the Rose Center for Earth and Space, by Polshek Partnership Architects, the museum has spent two and a half years renovating the Irma and Paul Milstein Family Hall of Ocean Life. Overhauled by the in-house exhibition department, the 29,000-square-foot, two-story space reopens with video projections, computer stations, and eight new ocean ecosystem displays. The hall's beloved dioramas received much-needed restoration, and original skylights are now illuminated in shimmering blue. Even the hall's crowning glory, the 94-foot-long blue whale suspended in midair, got an accuracy-enhancing nip and tuck. May 17; 212-769-5100; amnh.org.