KSS Architects and Ennead Architects designed the new Edelman Fossil Park & Museum of Rowan University in Mantua Township, New Jersey, on a former 4-acre marl quarry containing 66-million-year-old marine and terrestrial fossils – offering critical evidence of the fifth mass extinction. Perched on a ridge between the quarry and a pond, the museum is centrally located within the site’s 123 acres, positioned to frame expansive views and connect visitors to the surrounding landscape.

At 44,000 square feet, the museum acts as a learning and research center as well as an exhibit experience, with laboratory space and programs geared to both paleontologists and “citizen scientists”. The museum will feature three immersive galleries with fossils from the late Cretaceous period, full-scale reconstructions of extinct creatures, hands-on learning experiences, theater space, live animal attractions, virtual reality, and community gathering spaces. Surrounded by a network of nature trails, the museum connects interior programs with outdoor exploration, culminating in the active dig site where visitors can excavate fossils alongside researchers.

The design concept envisioned a set of metaphorical camera obscuras, a device in which a tiny aperture offers a view to a realm beyond. The site itself, the experience, and the architecture, are imagined as a series of lenses that link the present to earth’s deep past. This renewed perspective on humanity inspired an architecture that nestles within the natural landscape as a series of small-scale pavilions that frame the evidence of past worlds, while encouraging engagement with the present moment.

Aligning with the museum’s mission, one of the primary goals is to encourage environmental stewardship through both education and the demonstration of sustainability through a high-performance building. Utilizing the Living Building Challenge as a guide through design, the project incorporates both passive and active measures, featuring geothermal wells for ground-source heating and cooling systems, an all-electric building, and a NJ power purchase agreement for green energy. The surrounding grounds restore plant and animal habitat, bird-safe glazing protects from bird collisions, and the building utilizes a hybrid mass timber structure and wood cladding to maximize the use of renewable materials and to sequester carbon.