Our new spaces part 1

The Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum at Brigham Young University is a dynamic repository and trustee for a remarkable group of biological collections.  These collections are used to celebrate the role of Jesus Christ as Creator, while enhancing student learning and mentoring and promoting faculty teaching and research.  They also serve as a unique venue for inviting the public and scientific community to explore and contemplate intricate biological relationships and processes. Entry to the museum has been free since the museum opened on March 28, 1978.

We’ve been waiting for this expansion for almost 10 years. When the museum opened in 1978, it held 1,329,000 total specimens. Today the museum holds over 2,800,000 specimens. We were definitely feeling some growing pains! With our new expansion, we will have increased our size by 32,400 square feet.

The main entrance to the museum will now be on the east side of the building.

The new addition is covered with beautiful native sandstone from a quarry in Wasatch County.

The east side addition to the museum was completely funded by donor money. Thank you to our generous donors!

Here is the original floor plan of the main floor prior to construction. A few details have changed, but it is overall what you can expect to see.

Please look out for our blog post next month where we will be going over the details of our new interior!