Camden Council has approved the revised plan for a major extension at the British Museum, which will house a research wing, conservation labs, logistics, and new galleries giving ample space to stage large-scale temporary exhibitions.
The original proposal by Rogers Sirk Harbour & Parners was rejected in July for being a "massive over-development" unwelcome in the rarified Bloomsbury cityscape. After going back to the AutoCAD workstation, the firm submitted a scaled down plan that places up to a fifth of the new development underground.
Writing in the Standard earlier this week, critic Rowan Moore noted that, while the plan wasn't perfect and that Rogers' firm — which excels well when designing iconoclastic individual buildings but is less adept at making extensions to existing sites — was probably not an ideal choice, they had nevertheless delivered a concept that would help the Museum maintain its position at the vanguard of preserving and presenting world history and culture into the new century.
