The North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, US, will open its 127,000sq ft (11,800sq m) extension to the public on 24 April. The new single-storey building, designed by New York-based Thomas Phifer of Thomas Phifer and Partners, was created specifically to showcase the gallery's permanent collection of more than 5,000 pieces of art spanning antiquity to the present day. Surrounded by sculpture gardens and pools, the expansion project will

Netherlands-based The Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) has won a competition for a major expansion to the Musee national des beaux-arts du Quebec (MNBAQ) in Quebec, Canada. The 12,000sq m new building, effectively three overlapping boxes, will be situated at the point where downtown Quebec City meets Battlefields Park and form the company's first built project in Canada. The design, led by OMA partners Shohei Sigematsu and Rem Koolhaas in

Contractors have been appointed for the US$275m (£172m, 188m euro) Miami Science Museum in Florida, US. Boston-based Suffolk Construction and San Francisco-based Webcor Builders have been awarded the contracts to develop the museum, which was designed by British firm Grimshaw Architects. The 250,000sq ft museum will boast a 35,000sq ft aquarium, a planetarium and 55,000sq ft of indoor and outdoor exhibition space. It will be part of a new Miami

Small and medium-sized leisure businesses should find it easier to secure bank loans and funding, according to plans outlined by chancellor Alistair Darling in today's budget announcement. The budget - the last by chancellor Alistair Darling before the expected general election in May - will see Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds make £94bn available in business loans. Darling added that "at least half" of this will be made available

Plans for the development of a new £18.5m visitor centre at the Giant's Causeway, Northern Ireland, have received a £9.25m boost from the Northern Ireland Tourist Board (NITB). The funding announcement comes after the tourism agency reached an agreement with the National Trust (NT), which owns the attraction and plans to enhance the World Heritage Site's visitor experience. Dublin-based architects heneghan.peng are behind the designs for the new visitor centre,

Discover Greenwich, a new £6m cultural centre at the Old Royal Naval College on London's Thames riverside, has been opened by London Mayor, Boris Johnson. The new venue - scheduled to open to the public on 23 March and aiming to attract 1m visitors a year - uses state of the art interpretation techniques, never been seen before historic objects, rare artefacts, film footage and models in permanent and temporary

Plans have been submitted to Cheshire East Council (CEC) for the creation of a new discovery centre at the University of Manchester's (UM) Jodrell Bank Observatory. The 'live science' visitor attraction aims to attract thousands of extra visitors to the observatory, showcasing research 'as it happens' and inspire a future generation of young scientists. Jodrell Bank's 1,000sq m (10,764sq ft) discover centre will include a Planet Pavilion entrance building, with

St. Louis, US-based PGAV Destinations has won contracts to undertake the planning and design of Zhuhai Ocean World and the expansion of the Terracotta Warriors Museum, both in China. The Ocean World project is being developed by the Chimelong Group - which operates theme parks, animal safari parks, waterparks, and hotels in Guangzhou's Panyu district - as part of its Hengqin Island Development. When completed it will become the largest

A museum exploring the role of working-class people in the development of democracy in Britain from the early 18th century to the present day has officially reopened in Manchester. Unveiled by health secretary and MP for Leigh Andy Burnham, the People's History Museum has benefited from an extensive £12.5m redevelopment project. The attraction boasts 1,384sq m (4,541sq ft) of exhibition space and nearly 1,500 artefacts on display, while a purpose-built

The Madeira Story Centre in Funchal, Madeira, has been forced to close due to the heavy flooding on the island. The site, the island's first visitor centre, features exhibition spaces housed in a number of buildings and include a storyline of João Gonçalves Zarco's discovery of the Madeiran archipelago in 1418. The attraction was opened in 2005 by Blandy Group at a cost of around €6.4m (£4.5m. US$8.5m). The construction

Penarth Arts and Crafts (PAC), the organisation behind plans for the £3.9m restoration of a Grade II-listed pier pavilion in Penarth, South Wales, has received additional funding from the Vale of Glamorgan Council (VGC). The council has agreed to contribute a £15,000 grant towards the scheme, following a decision by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) last November to award PAC a first-round pass worth £99,600 to help develop detailed proposals

Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz has reported that award-winning architect Frank Gehry is withdrawing from the Museum of Tolerance and Human Dignity project in Jerusalem. The scheme aims to promote tolerance amongst Jewish populations within Israel, including Ashkenazim, Mizrahim, Ethiopians, Russians, and others, and is being sponsored by the Simon Wiesenthal Foundation, a Jewish human rights organisation. It has attracted controversy because it is being erected on the grounds of an old

An international architectural competition is being launched to deliver a landmark building for The V&A at Dundee, a new centre of 21st century design for Scotland. The structure will occupy a site at the centre of Dundee's redeveloped waterfront area, sitting just to the south of Craig Harbour on a site to be created projecting out into the River Tay. Mike Galloway, Dundee City Council's director of city development said:

The Natural History Museum (NHM) in London has launched a new 270-seat restaurant. Designed by a partnership involving architects RWCA and interior designers Path Design, the 6,500sq ft restaurant is the third of the Museum's visitor catering zones to be re-vamped in the space of 12 months. To create the eatery, the museum had to obtain a listed building consent as plans included breaking through the original building fabric to

The Saint Louis Art Museum in Missouri, US is to undergo its first major expansion in more than 20 years. Designed by London-based architect David Chipperfield, the expansion - in excess of 200,000sq ft - will provide new galleries, public space and a 300-space underground car park, as well as a new, fully accessible entrance on Fine Arts Drive. The project will result in a 30 percent increase in the

Camden Council has awarded planning permission to the £135m expansion of the British Museum. The plans received the green light at the second time of trying, after the council turned down an initial application in June 2009. The previous, rejected plans had angered a local conservation group, Bloomsbury Conservation Area Advisory Committee (BCAAC), which claimed the development would block daylight from the existing buildings and "diminish the museum's existing architectural

Demolition work has started on the Mary Rose Ship Hall in Portsmouth, Hampshire, which is making way for the development of a new £35m museum dedicated to the historic Tudor warship. The ship itself at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard was withdrawn from public view on 20 September to allow work to start, which will see a boat-shaped museum building built over the dry dock containing the Mary Rose. A team including

A new museum in Abu Dhabi, being built under advisement from the British Museum, is to open 2013. The Zayed National Museum, which is being developed by the Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC), is to be the cornerstone of the Saadiyat Island Cultural District. Designed by London's Foster + Partners, the 12,000sq m (130,000sq ft) museum is named after Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the late founder and

The North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, US, is to open its new 127,000sq ft expansion in April next year. Work began on the building, which was designed by New York-based Thomas Phifer and Partners, in December 2006. The new building will be home to the museum's permanent collection of 5,000 objects. The existing building will have its lobby renovated and will become a centre for temporary exhibitions, collections

Work has begun on a £7m redevelopment project on the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Manchester. The project is being led by architects Buttress Fuller Alsop Williams and funded jointly by the European Regional Development Fund, North West Development Agency (NWDA), DCMS, Garfield Weston and a number of other trusts and foundations. The improvement works will include the removal of the metal ramps at the heart of the

Northern Ireland tourism minister Arlene Foster has welcomed the "good progress" being made on the new £97m visitor attraction, which will be located in the centre of Belfast's Titanic Quarter. The Titanic Signature Building, which was designed by a team of international firms, including Eric Kuhn Associates, RFR and Event Communications, will tell the story of the city's association with the ill-fated luxury liner. Located at the head of the

The Neues Museum in Berlin, Germany has officially opened its doors for the first time in 70 years after a 212m euro (£192m) redevelopment project. The museum, which originally opened in 1855, was closed at the outbreak of World War II in 1939 and was subsequently damaged by bombing raids. British architect David Chipperfield’s refurbishment involved the reworking of the exhibition spaces, with modern design replacing the parts of the

Work has begun on the US$12m (£7.36m) Louisiana State Sports Hall of Fame and Regional History Museum in Natchitoches, US. The Sports Hall of Fame will feature a collection of memorabilia donated by 250 Louisiana sports figures, while the history museum will operate as part of the Louisiana State Museum system and will focus on the contributions of the diverse cultures that have shaped the state. The 28,000sq ft building

Plans for the transformation of the disused London Street Cathedral School in Derry, Northern Ireland, into a new social enterprise centre have been handed a £832,000 boost by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). The B1-listed Victorian schoolhouse, which was built in 1891 as the primary school attached to the St Columb's Church of Ireland Cathedral, is to be restored to provide a new venue for cultural and heritage tourism. London-based

Hadrian's Wall Heritage (HWH) has announced plans to create a 'line of light' along the length of the World Heritage Site between Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, and Bowness-on-Solway, Cumbria. Around 500 points of light will be placed 250m (820ft) apart, following the 84-mile (135km) Hadrian's Wall Path National Trail on 13 March 2010, as part of next year's British Tourism Week. Led by HWH, the project will complement a wider

Work has begun on the new US$185m Perot Museum of Science & Nature in Dallas, Texas. The museum’s new home, designed by Thom Mayne of LA-based architects Morphosis, is being built at Victory Park in downtown Dallas. Chair of the museum’s board, Frank-Paul King, said: “The groundbreaking of the Perot Museum of Nature & Science is the next major milestone toward opening the doors to a world-class facility, one designed

The University of California Berkeley in the US has scrapped its US$143m plans for a new museum. The plans to build a new home for its Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive were designed by Tokyo-based architect Toyo Ito, but the university has not been able to raise the funds. The school only managed to raise about US$81m of the US$200m target and blamed the economic downturn. However, the