First Finishing Touches

Fall semester at Yale is in full swing! Though students only returned to campus a few weeks ago, areas of the new construction are wrapping up after many months of work. One of our first milestones is the completion of shared staff and administrative space on the 4th floor of the new Museum. This bright …

Blue skies ahead

Summer may be nearing its end, but construction progress is hotter than ever! In June, the wooden ‘Glulam’ beams above the Central Gallery were completed, and recently paired with a water-tight glass ceiling to encapsulate the new room. This milestone ensures better climate control during construction and enables an array of finishing work to proceed …

360° Before-and-After Tour

Come inside the Peabody renovation as we transform the Museum from top to bottom. We’ve taken our historic structure down to bare walls to build it back better than ever. Our dioramas and murals will remain unchanged, but we’re remounting all of your favorite fossil specimens and bringing new objects out of our collections and …

Topping Out

The Glulam (glue-laminated timber) beams that will hover above our new Central Gallery have been installed. They’ll support the massive Archelon and Tylosaurus specimens that will be suspended above visitors’ heads when we reopen in 2024. And our new tower just needs its windows to complete that part of the north facade.

Welding a Brontosaurus enormous tibia and fibula

Rebuilding dinosaurs

This week, the team at Research Casting International is busy working on our Brontosaurus and Stegosaurus specimens. We can’t wait to have these dinosaurs back in the Peabody’s Great Hall, and thanks to RCI’s talented staff they’re going to look better than ever. The first few photos feature blacksmith Nevin welding the Brontosaurus femur and …

Wall of glass

This three-story, glass curtain wall on the Peabody’s addition is nearly complete. Centerbrook’s architectural design invites significantly more light into the Museum. Drive by 170 Whitney Avenue and take a look at all the new windows. Where possible, exterior glass in the Peabody has been fritted to reduced the number of bird strikes.

New Peabody, new tower

If you’ve driven by the Museum lately, you may have noticed something popping up. Here are a few views of the newly constructed tower on the north end of the Peabody’s addition. In two short years, we’ll be welcoming visitors and students through this entrance off of Yale’s Science Hill, directly into the brand-new Central …

Making our mark

Staff, curators, and project partners were invited to sign their name, leave a message in cuneiform, and/or draw a dinosaur, on the final steel beam of the Peabody addition. The crew from Turner Construction and the Ironworkers of Local 424 teamed up to secure it in place. And though we probably won’t see it again, …

Wooden hawk, sun disk on head

Planning for the new Peabody galleries

The #YalePeabodyRenovation will increase the Museum’s gallery space significantly. And curators and collection managers are collaborating with hardworking members of our Exhibitions team to select the objects that will fill those spaces and determine how they should be presented. Talented conservators, designers, mount-makers, and museum assistants carefully analyze and discuss each object to determine how …

Bridge down, drywall up

A few recent milestones and updates: The elevated bridge that connected the Peabody to the Kline Geology Lab is being demolished to create space (and light!) for the new Peabody Courtyard. Turner Construction installed the first drywall in the renovated Museum. And they’re moving a whole lot of dirt to install a new elevator that …