The Finger Lakes Cultural and Natural History Museum has reviewed submissions from 35 architect firms from across the country, the museum facilities committee has narrowed the search for a project design team down to four finalists.
The proposal is for the creation of a new museum that would showcase the 9,000 square-mile Finger Lakes Region.
Exhibits are planned to include Native American culture, early colonization, and the histories of agriculture, viniculture, and commerce. Artifacts will range from antique boats and farm equipment to an immense freshwater aquarium containing the fish species that are native to the Finger Lakes. Outdoor exhibits will feature live specimens of native wildlife in natural settings like beavers, otters and the Seneca White Deer. Special focus will be given to invasive species such as lamprey eels, purple loosestrife and zebra mussels.
Each of the eleven Finger Lakes will be individually featured with geographical, geological, glacial and topographic details that depict the effects of the receding glaciers on the region 12,000 years ago.
Included in the concept is an art and photo gallery, an auditorium, a bookstore and a research library as well as flex-space for any other regional museums and historical societies within the fourteen Finger Lakes counties to present their own exhibits on a rotating basis.
www.fingerlakesmuseum.org