November 3, 2014

North Dakota Heritage Center Expansion Opens on 125th Anniversary of Statehood

The North Dakota Heritage Center's 97,000-square-foot expansion is now complete with all four new galleries open to the public. The official public opening in Bismarck, ND, was held on November 2, 2014, which was North Dakota's 125th birthday. The $52 million museum expansion includes three new permanent exhibition galleries, a temporary exhibition space, and new facilities for education, staff and collections storage.

Lord Cultural Resources, in partnership with Xibitz and Taylor Studios, was engaged to lead the transformation of the Heritage Center’s permanent exhibition. Lord Cultural Resources is proud to have supported the Center’s staff to achieve its vision by providing project management, interpretive planning, design and content development, interpreting more than 500 million years of North Dakota’s history over for 33,000 square feet of new exhibitions.

The Heritage Center’s new permanent exhibition is divided among three galleries: Adaptation Gallery: Geologic Time; Innovation Gallery: Early Peoples; and Inspiration Gallery: Yesterday and Today. The new gallery exhibits will take visitors through history dating back before the ice-age to today, incorporating thousands of artifacts and specimens, high tech displays, and interactive exhibits. Congratulations to our client on the successful opening!