Entertainment

FORT WORTH – Demolition of the current Fort Worth Museum of Science and History will begin in October, making way for the dazzlingly varied array of volumes that constitute Ricardo Legorreta's new design.

Legorreta+Legorreta

An artist's rendering of the new Fort Worth Museum of Science and History

"We've enhanced programs without adding anything overwhelming," said Van Romans, the museum's president. "This is a building for discovery geared toward families. We want people to come back – children to return."

Seen from Gendy Street, the new building's blue-domed planetarium, tower entrance crowned with lit stained glass, and cubic dinosaur gallery in brick and glass creates the rhythm of a skyline in miniature. The variation in form is a testament to the complex programming of the space. In addition to the IMAX Dome, the museum will add exhibition space, a new planetarium, five classrooms, the Cattle Raisers Museum, new space for the Fort Worth Museum School, four internal courtyards and a large open plaza just to the east of the entrance.

Mr. Legorreta has moved the footprint of the building to the south of the site. In its new location, 90 feet from the Cowgirl Museum, the project connects seamlessly to neighboring institutions. There is a discourse of structures and space: The Cowgirl Museum shares the front plaza. The height of the dinosaur gallery mirrors the cornice line of the Cowgirl Museum just across the way. The "urban lantern," Mr. Legorreta's tall illuminated entrance, pays homage to the tower of the Will Rogers Memorial Center.

There is a similar seamlessness inside the space. Mr. Romans said: "We want to make connections. Upstairs, the Cattle Raisers Museum is next to the planetarium so kids will imagine cowboys sitting under the stars."

Completion of the museum is projected for fall 2009. Meanwhile, the museum will be in the first-floor gallery space of the Cowgirl Museum, and the Museum School will be in several adjacent portables.

The budget for the museum is $65 million, with $60 million going to the architecture and $5 million designated for transitional operating expenses. Two-thirds of that has been raised from private sources.

Charissa N. Terranova is a Dallas freelance writer.