Southampton City Council in the UK has appointed architects to design its new £15m Sea City Museum attraction. London-based architects Wilkinson Eyre won the contract to design the attraction, which will be located in the council’s Civic Centre, previously occupied by Southampton’s magistrate courts and police headquarters. The museum is intended to provide access to and interpretation of the city’s maritime heritage, and will include an exhibition on the Titanic,

Britain's oldest continuously working cinema, The Phoenix in East Finchley, is to receive a makeover after a £608,800 grant from the Heritage Lottery fund (HLF). The revamp of the grade II-listed building will include the construction of a bar or café, repair work to the auditorium including the original Mollo and Egan plaster wall panels and barrel vaulted ceiling as well as the extension of the mezzanine. The restoration is

Proposals to enhance the visitor experience at Westminster Abbey in central London have been revealed. The £23m scheme will see the Abbey's small plain pyramid roof being replaced by a more decorative corona. A new museum and exhibition space showcasing historic treasures and artefacts previously unseen by the public will be housed in the upper gallery, known as the Triforium, while an education centre and a café will provide improved

Inspectors from UNESCO's World Heritage Committee have revealed that they have no concerns over Bath's status as World Heritage Site, despite plans for the Western Riverside development. A report published by the committee revealed that proposals for the first phase of the Western Riverside scheme, which comprises 44 acres (17.8) hectares of land to the west of the city centre, will not threaten the future of the World Heritage Site.

A major £6.93m conservation and improvement scheme at Taunton Castle in Somerset has been handed a funding boost by Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society (SANHS). The £35,000 SANHS donation will be used to fund repair work at the castle, as well as the creation of new gallery spaces as part of the new Museum of Somerset attraction, which will house collections owned by the society. Bridgwater-based developer Henry W

Concerns have been raised over the future of more than 80 theatre buildings across the UK after the Theatres Trust published its latest research into venues at risk from dereliction or destruction. According to the 2009 Theatre Buildings at Risk Register, the Opera House at Blackpool's Winter Gardens complex is among the venues most at risk due to a potential threat of demolition, while the Grade II-listed Derby Hippodrome has

Manchester City Council (MCC) has announced that it will continue with plans for the restoration of Heaton Hall, Prestwich, despite failing in its bid to secure funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). The council plans to submit a revised, phased bid for funding early next year after the HLF said that it was unable to provide financial support for the £9.4m restoration of the Grade I-listed Heaton Hall, as

Plans for the £1bn transformation of Coventry city centre may need to be reconsidered after the government announced that the city's 1950s Retail Market has been awarded Grade II-listed status. The market, which was built in 1957 and designed by Coventry City Council's (CCC) Architects Department, features a number of East German murals and has been described as an important part of England's architectural heritage by English Heritage. Deborah Porter,

Architect David Chipperfield has been commissioned to design a new gallery for the Jumex Foundation’s Coleccion Jumex in Mexico. The Coleccion Jumex is run by Jumex, a fruit juice company, and features contemporary art from around the world. The new 4,000sq m gallery will double the site’s exhibition space and will be host to 2,000 pieces of art from the collection. Work is expected to being in March next year.

Imperial War Museum North (IWMN) in Manchester has selected German architects Topotek 1 as the preferred design team to develop the external spaces of the museum. According to Jim Forrester, IWMN director, Topotek's scheme was chosen due to the fact that it best addressed a complex brief and complemented the Daniel Libeskind-designed building. Topotek's design includes "contemplation zones", a new quayside walkway with access across the water frontage; a landscaped

The new Ohio Statehouse Museum has opened to the public at the historic Statehouse building in downtown Columbus, Ohio, US. The 5,000sq ft (460sq m) museum is housed in a purpose-build space within the Statehouse and includes a number of galleries and exhibits telling the history and stories of the state of Ohio. Galleries include the Great Ohioans Exhibit, presenting recipients of the Great Ohioan award on a large touch

The Science Museum in London, UK, is to undergo a £100m modernisation. Designed by Wilkinson Eyre Architects, the designs for the revamp are intended to match with wider plans for the South Kensington area, and will boast a new glass feature called the Beacon on the Exhibition Road façade is intended to "present an exciting new image of the Science Museum as a dynamic and engaging place to visit". The

Work on the first phase of the £5.5m redevelopment of Durlston Country Park in Dorset is to get underway this summer with the restoration of the Great Globe and other stone inscriptions. Stone conservation specialists Sue and Lawrence Kelland have been appointed to repair and repaint the 40-ton globe, which was first erected during the late 19th century by the owner of the Durlston Estate, George Burt. The next phase

Boris Johnson's latest initiative to improve the lives of Londoners aims to boost the number of volunteers in the capital. Johnson said: "Volunteering is good for individuals and great for London in tough economic times. By giving your time, whether a one-off few hours or a regular commitment, we can both help to make the capital a more civilised, pleasant place and reap the rewards of putting something back into

The Jewish Museum London, in Camden Town, is set to reopen to the public in November 2009, after having undergone a £9m redevelopment of its facilities. The revamp, funded partly by a £4.3m grant from the Heritage lottery Fund, has resulted in the museum tripling in space in order to accommodate its collections, which are currently housed at two separate sites in Camden Town and Finchley. Five new galleries have

The US$106m (£64m, 74.4m euro) expansion of the 170,000sq ft (15,793sq m) Anchorage Museum at the Rasmuson Center in Alaska has opened its doors to the public. The revamp, designed by London-based David Chipperfield Architects, incorporated a new glass-fronted façade and entrance facing downtown Anchorage. Among the features of the new building are a café, shop and two extra floors (80,000sq ft, 7,432sq m) of exhibition space. A venue at

Housesteads Roman Fort, which is part of Hadrian's Wall World Heritage Site near Bardon Mill, Northumberland, is set to be transformed over the next five years in a bid to improve the visitor experience. The National Trust and English Heritage will work with Hadrian's Wall Heritage and Gareth Hoskins Architects - designers of the award-winning Culloden Battlefield visitor centre in Scotland - to create enhanced displays showcasing some of the

The US$300m (£193.5m, 220m euro) Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago, US, has opened to public this week. The 24,500sq m (264,000sq ft) extension, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano has increased the museum's floor space to more than a million square feet, making it the second largest art museum in the US. The three-storey extension, which is covered by a sun-shade system allowing natural light to

Lakeland Motor Museum at Holker Hall in Cumbria will be relocated to a new purpose-built premise at Backbarrow near Newby Bridge. Former Blue Mill carton packaging sheds have been redeveloped to provide a larger display space for the museum's 30,000 exhibits, which tell the story of more than 100 years of motoring history. A new exhibit on all aspects of road transport history will now be presented, while existing displays,

A new £25m visitor centre is set to be built at Stonehenge in Wiltshire after a scheme to revitalise the World Heritage Site was provisionally given the green light by the government. Work will now commence on drawing up a planning application for the new centre, which is to be located at Airman's Corner following recommendations by the Stonehenge Project Board - chaired by culture minister Barbara Follett and transport

New plans for the radical mixed-use redevelopment of London's Grade II-listed Commonwealth Institute building in Holland Park have angered heritage groups. The designs have been submitted to the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea Council (RBK&C) by the Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), with the intention of converting the building into a possible new home for the Design Museum. The redevelopment, led by developers Chelsfield Partners, includes the removal of

The architect has been picked to design a new branch of Mexico's Tamayo Contemporary Art Museum in Mexico City on behalf of client Patronato Tamayo. Mexican architects Roijkin Arquitectos and Danish practice BIG have been selected from a design competition to create the new 3,500sq m Tamayo Museum, which will house art exhibition spaces, storage and restoration facilities. The cross-shaped building, designed to look like 'an open box', is earmarked

The National Children's Museum (NCM) - formerly the Capital Children's Museum in Washington - is set to reopen at its new home in Maryland, US, in 2013. Part of the National Harbor development in Prince George's County, the 150,000sq ft (14,000sq m) building will represent six core content areas: the environment, health and well being, play, civic engagement, the arts and world cultures. Designed by Connecticut architect Cesar Pelli, it

The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Centre has opened in Skokie, IL, US. Around 12,000 people attended the US$45m (£30m, 34m euro), 65,000sq ft (6,040sq m) museum, which features 2,000 survivor testimonies. The museum – designed by architect Stanley Tigerman – houses artefacts such as Simon Wiesenthal’s eyeglasses, an original volume of the Nuremberg Trial transcripts, Kindertransport lists and artwork made in the concentration camps. Its Room of Remembrance honours

A new £2.2m visitor centre has opened at the Stanwick Lakes countryside attraction and nature reserve near Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire, as part of a two-phase project at the site. The facility, which marks the completion of the first phase of the construction scheme, includes a central atrium containing an interpretation space and interactive exhibits, a multi-purpose function suite and an indoor play area for young children. A café with terrace

Attempts to save the former home of author Elizabeth Gaskell have received a boost after English Heritage (EH) announced that it would contribute more than £260,000 as part of a £2.5m revamp of the property. The Grade II-listed house, where Gaskell wrote novels including Cranford and Wives and Daughters, is set for extensive renovation work after Manchester City Council approved the scheme in November last year. Owned by the Manchester

Work is set to get underway on the restoration and redevelopment of a historic music hall in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, after the scheme secured a £1m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). The Shropshire Portal scheme will include the development of a new, sustainable museum and visitor information centre at the 13th century, Grade II*-listed Vaughan's Mansion and the Grade II-listed Music Hall and Assembly Rooms dating back to 1835.