The Shedd Aquarium has unveiled its strategic vision for the next 100 years. The vision, dubbed the Centennial Commitment due to the organization’s 100th anniversary in 2030, is aimed at ensuring a more equitable, sustainable, and thriving future for people and aquatic life.
The Centennial Commitment centers around three primary pillars - For People, For Communities, and For Aquatic Life. These pillars include:
- Deeper community investments and partnerships
- A modernized aquarium experience through the transformation and restoration of the historic galleries and dynamic new exhibits that provide greater and more accessible entry points
- New educational and experiential programs
- Digital engagements that bring animals and conservation action programs from the aquarium into more hands and homes
- Advancements in animal care and welfare
- Accelerated aquatic research and science
Half of the $500 million budget will power the programs and partnerships needed to achieve the Centennial Commitment’s aspirations while the other half will focus on the needed physical improvements to the historic Beaux-Arts-style building that will modernize the aquarium galleries and experience, enable greater accessibility, enhance animal habitats, and restore architectural features such as the opening of original windows that provide views of the Chicago skyline and Lake Michigan and unobstructed public access to the building’s original exterior promenade and garden spaces.
The multi-year, four phase construction project will begin in late 2022. Project highlights include:
- A modernized experience that will feature more accessible, interactive, highly immersive, and science-rich galleries
- A new learning commons located at the historic core of the aquarium on the main level that will serve as a launchpad and increase the amount of existing classroom space
- A centralized science hub that will merge five existing scientific laboratories into one central hub spanning microbial ecology, conservation science, water quality and chemistry, genome studies, and pathology
- New circulation pathways that will significantly reduce the number of transitions between areas of the aquarium, allowing guests to have multiple options regarding where they can start their journey and making navigation easier.
- Four acres of activated outdoor green space around the building that will increase natural connections to nature and bolster resilience on the lakefront while also adding experiential blue and environmental improvements.
The modernization of the historic galleries will serve as the largest capital project for the organization in recent history, preceded by the expansion of the Abbott Oceanarium in 1991 (and its reimagination in 2008), Amazon Rising exhibit in 2001, and Wild Reef exhibit in 2003.
The build team will include Pepper/BMI Construction (general contractor partners), Valerio Dewalt Train (architect), Thinc Design (exhibit design partner), JLL (project manager), Institute for Human Centered Design (accessibility partner), and Trinal (equity and inclusion partner).
Construction is slated to conclude in 2026 with new galleries, programs, and experiences opening each year on a rolling basis.
Related Stories
Giants 400 | Feb 6, 2023
2022 Reconstruction Sector Giants: Top architecture, engineering, and construction firms in the U.S. building reconstruction and renovation sector
Gensler, Stantec, IPS, Alfa Tech, STO Building Group, and Turner Construction top BD+C's rankings of the nation's largest reconstruction sector architecture, engineering, and construction firms, as reported in the 2022 Giants 400 Report.
Steel Buildings | Feb 3, 2023
Top 10 structural steel building projects for 2023
A Mies van der Rohe-designed art and architecture school at Indiana University and Morphosis Architects' Orange County Museum of Art in Costa Mesa, Calif., are among 10 projects to win IDEAS² Awards from the American Institute of Steel Construction.
Giants 400 | Feb 1, 2023
2022 Cultural Facilities Giants: Top architecture, engineering, and construction firms in the U.S. cultural facilities sector
Populous, DLR Group, KPFF, Arup, and Turner Construction head BD+C's rankings of the nation's largest cultural facilities sector architecture, engineering, and construction firms, as reported in the 2022 Giants 400 Report. Building types include museums, public libraries, performing arts centers, and concert venues.
Museums | Jan 18, 2023
Building memory: Why interpretive centers matter in an era of social change
The last few years have borne witness to some of the most rapid cultural shifts in our nation’s long history. If the experience has taught us anything, it is that we must find a way to keep our history in view, while also putting it in perspective.
Museums | Oct 25, 2022
Seattle Aquarium’s new Ocean Pavilion emphasizes human connection to oceans
Seattle Aquarium’s new Ocean Pavilion, currently under construction, features several exhibits that examine the human connection with the Earth’s oceans.
| Sep 1, 2022
The University of Iowa opens the new Stanley Museum of Art, a public museum for both discovering and teaching art
The University of Iowa recently completed its new Stanley Museum of Art, a public teaching museum designed by BNIM.
Giants 400 | Aug 22, 2022
Top 90 Construction Management Firms for 2022
CBRE, Alfa Tech, Jacobs, and Hill International head the rankings of the nation's largest construction management (as agent) and program/project management firms for nonresidential and multifamily buildings work, as reported in Building Design+Construction's 2022 Giants 400 Report.
Giants 400 | Aug 19, 2022
2022 Giants 400 Report: Tracking the nation's largest architecture, engineering, and construction firms
Now 46 years running, Building Design+Construction's 2022 Giants 400 Report rankings the largest architecture, engineering, and construction firms in the U.S. This year a record 519 AEC firms participated in BD+C's Giants 400 report. The final report includes more than 130 rankings across 25 building sectors and specialty categories.
| Aug 19, 2022
Manassas Museum renovated to reimagine a civic design & engage the community
Manassas, VA has recently added to its historic Manassas Museum.
Cultural Facilities | Aug 5, 2022
A time and a place: Telling American stories through architecture
As the United States enters the year 2026, it will commence celebrating a cycle of Sestercentennials, or 250th anniversaries, of historic and cultural events across the land.