Change in architecture firm will result in a different design than published renderings
The City of Jacksonville has committed $50 million over three years toward construction of a new Museum of Science and History (MOSH) on Downtown’s Northbank.
Approved by the city council as part of the city’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), the funding comes as the project’s architecture firm has switched from DLR Group to SmithGroup.
For procurement purposes, the museum had to rebid both the project’s architectural and exhibit design firms, resulting in the switch to SmithGroup. As a result, “MOSH 2.0” will no longer look like the project renderings the museum has distributed to date.
SmithGroup is considered the nation’s premier architectural firm for museums and cultural facilities. Among the firm’s well-known projects is the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History & Culture.
With the addition of the $50 million in city funding, MOSH has raised approximately $93 million of the project’s projected $120 million cost. According to the terms of the city’s agreement with the museum, construction must begin by the end of 2025 and be completed by 2028.
Reaching new audiences
Currently, MOSH attracts approximately 175,000 visitors a year, with the majority of those visitors
coming from school groups. The new museum is projected to attract about 500,000 guests a year, with tourists comprising a larger share of its visitor profile.
