Design plans for the new multi-million pound King Richard III visitor centre in the heart of Leicester's Old Town has been revealed. The former Leicester Grammar School building at St Martin's Place will be transformed to house a new exhibition, entitled 'Richard III: Dynasty, Death and Discovery' which will guide visitors through the story of the king's life, brutal death at Bosworth Field in 1485, and the story of his

A proposed £8.8m Landscape Discovery Centre in Northumberland National Park (NNP) has the potential to contribute £3.5m (US$5.2m, €3.9m) to the local economy, according to reports. The Economic Impact Assessment, prepared by New Skills Consulting and the KSA Partnership, which was commissioned by NNP and the Youth Hostels Association (YHA), estimated that 'The Sill' has the potential to attract up to 120,000 new visitors and generate £3.35m (US$5.2m, €3.9m) annually

Albert Einstein's life and work, as well as his connections to Judaism and Zionism, are to be honoured by a museum in Jerusalem. The museum will be located at The Hebrew University on Mount Scopus, a site which has drawn some controversy as it lies outside Israel's pre-1967 borders. A design concept, by Foster + Partners, in collaboration with local Israeli firm, Baer, Shiftman-Nathan Architects, has been commissioned by the

The Corning Museum of Glass in New York has unveiled the final design of its North Wing expansion, which is slated to open in late 2014. Designed by Thomas Phifer and Partners, the addition will include a new 26,000 sq ft (2,415sq m) contemporary art gallery building, as well as a new 500-seat glassmaking demonstration venue in the renovated facility of the former Steuben Glass factory ventilator building, adjacent to

The multi-million dollar Lambda project have been given the green light to create the Munch Museum in a glass structure on Oslo’s waterfront. Spanish architects Herreros Arquitectos were appointed to design the museum in 2009 but the project was put on hold over issues on cost and location. The museum is now being developed on the site originally intended; a 12,000sq ft glass structure on the waterfront. Expected to open

After more than a decade of planning and preparation, the new Mediterranean civilisations museum (Mucem) is preparing open its doors to the public. The €191m (£163.3m, US$249.7m) project will be the worlds first museum to be dedicated to Mediterranean civilisations and culture. With an expected 300,000 visitors a year, Mucem will be the first standalone French national museum ever to be located outside of Paris. Developed in partnership with the

Plans are in the works to bring a Guggenheim museum to Wales as early as 2019 in a bid to replicate the success that came from opening one in Bilbao, Spain. In 2012 the Guggenheim in Bilbao helped generate €294.6m (£252.2m, US$380.2m) in GDP for the country. The predicted opening date of 2019 or 2020 would coincide with the current timetable for the electrification of the south Wales rail line.

London's cultural landmark the British Museum has broken ground on its new multi-million pound capital project, the World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre (WCEC). Designed by Rogers, Stirk, Harbour + Partners (RSHP) and constructed by Mace, the new WCEC is one of the largest redevelopment projects in the museum's 260 year history. The aim of the project is to safeguard and enhance collections, while enabling the museum to store, conserve, study

Beijing-based MAD Architects have unveiled the completed China Wood Sculpture Museum located in Harbin, China. The 200m (656ft) long building is sheathed in metal and surrounded by a densely populated Chinese-style neighbourhood and residential complexes. It was constructed with the aim of adding cultural and surreal essence to the surrounding urban context. The museum takes the form of a twisted strip of steel, punctuated with curved windows. MAD describes the

London's Hackney Council has rejected a planning application for an £18.9m redevelopment project at the Geffrye Museum. The museum, which examines the changing face of middle class homes in England over the past 400 years, appointed David Chipperfield Architects to increase its capacity, which it says is stretched to the limit. The plans included a two-storey extension, new gallery, library, collections and archive stores, conference suite, restaurant, and a new

The British Museum has revealed it is progressing on schedule for the opening of its new £135m exhibition space, due to open in March 2014. Construction on the World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre (WCEC) began in autumn 2011 in the north-west corner of the museum's central London estate. The redevelopment project is one of the largest in the museum's 260-year history and will include a new public exhibition gallery, state-of-the-art

London's Science Museum has revealed details regarding its communications gallery Information Age, due to open in September 2014. The £15.6m space will include interactive displays and reveal personal stories about how human life has been transformed by communication innovations over the past 200 years. Covering a space of 2,500sq m - the largest exhibition space in the museum - the gallery will be divided into six zones focused on transformative

San Francisco's Exploratorium science museum officially unveiled its US$300m (228m euro, £197m) expansion at Pier 15 on the city's waterfront on 17 April. The museum now has 330,000sq ft (30,658sq m) of floor space - trebling the footprint it had at its former home at the Palace of Fine Arts. It will display more than 600 exhibits. Established in 1969, the museum is dedicated to science, art and human perception,

London-based architects Carmody Groarke have submitted a planning application to the Lake District National Park to redevelop the Windermere Steamboat Museum into a heritage attraction. The £13.4m museum development will include exhibition space, a wet dock to display heritage boats and a conservation workshop open to the public. Highlights of the collection will include: steam launches of the 1890s and 1900s; SL Dolly (1850) - the oldest mechanically powered boat

A new US$300m (€ 230m, £195m) Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is being developed in Los Angeles, US by architects Renzo Piano and Zoltan Pali. The Museum, which is slated to debut in 2017, will span 300,000 sq ft (27,870sq m). Located in the 1939 May Company Building on the campus of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the museum will feature six levels of exhibition and programming

Shelburne Museum in Vermont, US is set to open a new Centre for Art and Education that will transform the museum from seasonal to year-round operation. For the first time, the public will have year-round access to the museum's collections. The eco-friendly centre will create a modern, flexible venue for exhibitions of art and design featuring loaned works and touring exhibitions. Designed by Boston-based Ann Beha Architects, the centre will

Science Oxford has submitted a planning application for its proposed £38m attraction The Magnet - the UK's first integrated science discovery and innovation centre. The development has been designed by Foster + Partners to be built next to Castle Mound. Its centrepiece attraction would be a world-class planetarium but it would also include displays, events and lectures promoting all forms of science. The innovation centre would provide accommodation and support

The former Queens Museum of Art has announced it is rebranding as it prepares to reopen in October following a US$68m (53m euro, £45m) 50,000sq ft (4,645sq m) expansion, which will see it double in size. The international art space in Flushing Meadows will now be known as Queens Museum. The institution says the change reflects the breadth of the museum's mission to display not only contemporary art but exhibits

The British government has launched an independent review of architecture and the built environment with aims to better shape policy to achieve high quality design. The report - expected to be complete by the end of the year - will be led by London-based architect Sir Terry Farrell with support provided by an advisory panel. In addition to the government's role in promoting quality design the review will look at

A £2.5m project to transform the visitor experience at Norfolk’s 900-year-old Wymondham Abbey is now able to go ahead due to Heritage Lottery Funding worth £1.5m. Improvements to the Grade I listed site include: two new extensions – including one within a ruined chapel; the removal of inappropriate architectural additions; a recreated medieval herb garden; and public access to county wildlife site Abbey Meadows. A full time learning and events

Preston Park Museum and Grounds has hosted an animated 3D film projected on its façade to celebrate its official re-launch following a £7m revamp. Hundreds turned up to view the night time animation, entitled Lustre, which centred around the hall and its hidden secrets. The restored museum now has a complete redisplay of its collections, an interactive Victorian street and a traditional walled kitchen garden and orchard. The Heritage Lottery

Danish design firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has been announced as the winning team to lead the first phase of the Smithsonian Campus Master Plan, in a US$2.4m (1.85m euro, £1.59m) contract. At 700,000sq ft (65,032sq m) the campus in Washington D.C., US is the world's largest museum and research complex and includes 19 museums, the National Zoological Park and nine research facilities. BIG has already revealed it hopes to

An £11.6m funding application to regenerate Shrewsbury’s eighteenth-century Flax Mill Maltings for public and commercial use will be submitted to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) by the end of March. The site comprises seven listed buildings and includes the Main Mill, which was built in 1797 and was the world’s first iron-framed building and the forerunner of the modern skyscraper. Other buildings to be renovated include the Kiln, the Dye,

A new interdisciplinary exhibition at New York's Museum of Design examines new design approaches in the post-millennial museum. After the Museum: The Home Front 2013 opened on 12 March and aims to get audiences reconsidering traditional notions of the structure and roles of museums through installations, digital initiatives, lectures and publications. Co-curator and manager of public programmes at the museum, Jake Yuzka, said: "Over the last on hundred years, both

Dudley Council has approved plans for three attractions at Castle Hill submitted for planning permission in January. The £10.1m plans for the Dudley Zoological Gardens, the Black Country Living Museum and the Dudley Canal Trust include a shared arrival point for visitors, a new entrance for each attraction and 600 new parking spaces and an upgraded car park. The plans, which had been shared with the public in February, received

The Heritage Lottery Fund has this week awarded £704,500 for the permanent display of the largest and most valuable Anglo-Saxon treasure ever discovered at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. The 3,500-piece Staffordshire Hoard, which includes 7th-century gold and silver metalwork, has been on temporary display since September 2009 – two months after its discovery in a field near Lichfield. The proposed gallery will showcase approximately 300 items and interpret the

Paisley Abbey has submitted plans to Refrewshire Council for the £2m reconstruction of its fourth cloister, to house a visitor centre, café, gift shop and function space. Architects Simpson & Brown have submitted the plans, received 28 February, and state the extension will complement the existing 12th-century abbey without copying what was there. It is hoped the two-floor expansion- to be constructed of heavy masonry on the ground floor and