Construction begins for Singapore's first purpose-built natural history museum
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(From left) Guest of Honour Professor Tommy Koh ,architect Mok Wei Wei, former President of Singapore Mr SR Nathan and Dr Lee Seng Tee viewing a model of the new Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum at National University of Singapore. Building for Singapore's first standalone natural history museum has begun on the campus of the National University of Singapore. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND FOO
BUILDING for Singapore's first standalone natural history museum has begun on the campus of the National University of Singapore.
The school drove the first pile today for the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, which will take about 16 months to complete.
The 8,500 sq m, seven-storey green building, to be built at a cost of $46 million, will house not just three real dinosaur fossils, but also a priceless collection of some 500,000 specimens of Southeast Asian vertebrates and invertebrates.
The groundbreaking ceremony today marks more than three years of intense fundraising by a team of academics - first to build the museum, which will take over from the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research; then to buy the dinosaurs.
