Amherst College has selected Payette Associates of Boston to design a new 60,000-sf combined Geology Building and Natural History Museum. Sited on campus to initiate a redefinition of a major campus space, the facility will include state of the art teaching labs for both introductory and advanced instruction in the geological sciences. Students in these disciplines will have access to their own specialized research spaces, map rooms, a library, and a multidisciplinary GIS lab. Faculty members will have access to private research laboratories and project rooms, which will allow them to integrate their teaching and research activities. The new Natural History Museum will house outstanding collections and exhibits that include vertebrate and invertebrate paleontology, minerals and other geologic specimens, and anthropological material. The museum will also house the College's renowned Hitchcock Ichnology Collection, one of the most significant collections of dinosaur tracks and traces found in the United States.
