Construction is now underway on an £11.5m project to create a dramatic new entrance at Glasgow's Theatre Royal and provide more public space at the venue. Earlier this year the Café Royal wing of the theatre was demolished and foundations have now been laid for the oval-shaped entrance, which will include bars, a box office, cloakrooms, toilet facilities and hospitality suites. Lifts will also be installed for the first time

The US National Gallery of Art will construct two new art wings and an outdoor sculpture terrace after securing US$30 (23.2m euro, £19.83m) in private donations. The additional 12,260sq ft (1,139sq m) of exhibition space will be constructed within the current footprint of the East Building on Washington's National Mall. Philanthropists who donated to the cause include: gallery president Victoria P. Sant and her husband Roger W. Sant; Mitchell Rales,

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,

Details of the UK's first Shangri-La - to occupy levels 34 to 52 of The Shard - have been revealed ahead of its opening this summer. The five-star 202-room property will be London's first elevated luxury hotel and promises panoramic views, including nearby attractions such as the Tate Modern, the Tower of London, St. Paul's Cathedral and Shakespeare's Globe. Room features will include custom-made beds, iPod docking stations, complimentary high-speed

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

A major partnership between East Sussex County Council, Brighton & Hove City Council and the University of Sussex will see around 350,000 items moved from the Royal Pavilion & Museums to new historical resource centre The Keep, beginning next month. Based in Falmer the facility will house the area's archives and historical records including: maps and plans; written records; photographs and films; prints and drawings; oral histories; digital and electronic

Australia's Art Gallery of New South Wales has revealed it plans to double in size and transform itself into an art museum for the "Asian century", in time for the 150th anniversary of its founding in 2021. An international architectural competition will produce a design for the new building, which will expand northwards towards the harbour. Other improvements - part of a strategic master plan for the attraction - include

Alton Towers Resort has worked with researchers at New Scientist to ensure its news £18m roller coaster The Smiler delivers park visitors maximum thrills. The ride, which will reach speeds of 85km/hr along 1,170m of track, will feature "twisted psychological effects to mess with riders' minds" including blinding lights and optical illusions to maximise the fear factor. Alton Towers aims to make visitors to feel "spaced out, or mashed up"

Financing to fund the first phase of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, Georgia, US, has been secured, with construction to start this month. The US$125m (96m euro, £84m) project, which will detail the African-American civil rights movement and ongoing human rights issues, had been slow to secure funds due to the economic downturn. However, on 7 March PNC Bank and Invest Atlanta announced US$24m (18m

Disney has unveiled the first image of Shanghai Disneyland Resort, at its annual meeting of shareholders this month. Set to open in 2015, the resort will include 225-acre theme park Shanghai Disneyland, two themed hotels and 16,000sq m (495,000sq ft) of retail, dining and entertainment, recreational facilities and a lake. The Enchanted Storybook Castle will be the centrepiece of the theme park and will be surrounded by themed lands. Walt

Filmmaker George Lucas has revealed his vision for a populist art museum to be built in San Francisco overlooking the Bay Area, Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. His proposal is one of 16 received by the Presidio Trust, which is overseeing the rejuvenation of the former commissary site at Crissy Field, with others proposals including an observatory, an environmental museum and a museum dedicated to the US response to

Australia’s Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens are to get a new “Biome” structure to showcase plants and insects from the Australasian and Indomalaya regions. According to the Sydney Morning Herald work on the AU$20m (US$21m, 16m euro, £14m) structure, designed by architectural firm Hassell, will begin this year and will be completed in 2015. It is expected to attract 70,000 visitors to the park annually. New South Wales environment minister Robyn

A restructure at the National Media Museum (NMeM) has contributed to the delay in the planned June opening of a new £4m Media Space at the Science Museum in London, which will now open on 21 September. The two museums – both part of the Science Museum Group – have collaborated on the new project, which will provide a gallery to showcase the National Photography Collection. According to the Museums

Three zip lines are among the new features at Kawarau Bungy Centre in Queenstown, New Zealand, which officially reopened 1 March. The attraction, which first opened 24 years ago and was the first commercial bungy site, also includes a new café, bar, photo and video system in its redesign. The centre will also be able to transform into an event space for up to 800 guests in the evenings. The

Virginia's planned presidential library for George Washington has achieved its US$100m (76.9m euro, £66.5m) capital campaign goal ahead of schedule with a gift from one of the United States' foremost philanthropists. The Mount Vernon Ladies' Assocation revealed on what would have been Washington's 281st birthday that David M. Rubenstein had donated US$10m (7.7m euro, £6.7m) to the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington. The association

Harvard Art Museums, comprising the Fogg Museum, the Busch-Reisinger Museum and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, is currently undergoing a renovation and expansion project and will reopen in Q3 2014. Designed by architect Renzo Piano, the project will bring the three museums under one roof for the first time. The new facility will feature expanded permanent collection galleries along with galleries programmed in consultation with students and faculty and flexible

Dudley Council has shared its plans for the three attractions at Castle Hill with the public, following its submission of planning permission in January for the major redevelopment. The £10.1m proposal 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. During

Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto has been appointed to design the temporary Serpentine Gallery Pavilion for 2013, which will open in London's Kensington Gardens in June. Fujimoto's design vision for the 350sq m space is a latticed structure with a semi-transparent appearance that will see it blend with the landscape and the gallery's colonnaded east wing. For the first time design firm AECOM will provide technical and engineering services for pavilion.

Work has begun on the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA), which will open in 2016. More than US$95m (£61.4m, 71m euro) of the US$100m (£64.6m, 75m euro) campaign for the new facility was raised by private donations. Designed by New York City-based firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R), the centre will feature "bold new architectural form," that will focus on “beauty and accessibility.” The

Plans have been unveiled to turn the former Loudoun Castle theme park site in East Ayrshire, Scotland, into an environmentally-friendly, £300m golf resort. Project management company Vicon UK has joined forces with investor FML to launch the ambitious masterplan, which proposes a world class championship standard 18-hole golf course, club house and educational golf academy as well as a new whisky distillery, homes, retail and a food and drink 'centre

Public donations of £35,000 raised in just over a week mark the end of a £35m appeal to fund a new home for Tudor warship the Mary Rose in Portsmouth. The museum was scheduled to open in autumn 2012 but a final fit out of interiors was to take longer than expected, and the attraction is now expected to open late spring. In addition to the restored ship, the boat-shaped

Animation studio DreamWorks – behind films such as Madagascar, Shrek and How to Train Your Dragon – has revealed it has entered a partnership to open three family theme parks across Russia by 2015. At 35m tall – the height of a 13-storey building – the entertainment attractions will be the largest indoor theme parks in Europe and will open in St Petersburg, Moscow and Yekaterinburg. Russian property developer REGIONS