
Edelman Fossil Park & Museum of Rowan University
Inspired by the core themes of preservation, exploration, and education, Edelman Fossil Park & Museum is a one-of-a-kind active fossil dig site that offers visitors the unique opportunity for hands-on discovery at a remarkable site of scientific wonder.
Just as the site itself offers a window into the earth’s deep past and the devastation of mass extinction, the highly sustainable, carbon net-zero building looks to the earth’s future and the critical importance of planetary stewardship in the Anthropocene.
The museum is situated within an active dinosaur fossil dig site in Southern New Jersey which contains thousands of fossils and provides a view into life in the Cretaceous Period 66 million years ago. Once a shallow ocean environment, then used for mining for over a century, the site is now a 4-acre quarry, encompassed by a 123-acre property, where “citizen scientists” can dig for fossils, alongside leading paleontologists at Rowan University.
Research at the site, led by Dr. Kenneth Lacovara, founding executive director of the Edelman Fossil Park & Museum, is shedding light on ancient events that led to the world’s 5th mass extinction, during which the dinosaurs and 75% of species went extinct—a pivotal, calamitous moment that paved the way for the modern world as we know it.
The design concept for this remarkable project was envisioned as a set of metaphorical camera obscuras, an apparatus in which a tiny aperture offers a view to a realm beyond. The site itself, the experience, and the architecture, are all envisioned as a series of lenses that link deep time with the present, exhibits with the quarry, and ultimately provide a view to our collective future given the ongoing human-caused sixth mass extinction. The renewed perspective on humanity offered by the fossil record inspired an architecture that nestles within the natural landscape as a series of small-scale pavilions that frame the evidence of past worlds, while encouraging engagement with the present moment.
At 44,000 square feet, the museum acts as a learning and research center as well as an exhibit experience, with laboratory space and programs geared to both paleontologists and “citizen scientists”. The museum will feature three immersive galleries with fossils from the late Cretaceous period, full-scale reconstructions of extinct creatures, hands-on learning experiences, live animal attractions, virtual reality, connections to the natural world, and community gathering spaces.
Aligning with the museum’s mission, one of the project’s primary goals is to encourage environmental stewardship through both education and the demonstration of sustainability through a high-performance building, which will be one of New Jersey’s largest public carbon net-zero facilities. Utilizing the Living Building Challenge as a guide through design, the project incorporates both passive and active measures, featuring geothermal wells for ground-source heating and cooling systems, an all-electric building, and a power purchase agreement for green energy available in New Jersey’s power grid. No fossil fuels will be combusted for museum operations and no greenhouse gasses will be released into the atmosphere. In addition, the surrounding grounds will restore plant and animal habitat, and bird-safe glazing protects from bird collisions. The building utilizes a hybrid heavy-timber structure as well as wood cladding to maximize the use of renewable materials and to sequester carbon.
Details
- Year
- 2025
- Location
- Mantua, NJ
- Size
- 44,000 GSF
- Program
- Lobby, Auditorium, Exhibit Galleries, Theater, Research Workshop, VR Chamber, Cafe & Gift Shop, Admin Offices, Active Fossil Dig in Quarry, Outdoor Trails
- Client Website
- Visit Edelman Fossil Park & Museum
Team
- Ennead Design Team
- Thomas Wong, Don Weinreich, Marissa Sweig Trigger, Julia Chapman, Ursula Trost, Kailey Baker, Luccas Dias, Darla Elsbernd, Bettine Gachstetter, Masha Konopleva, Eliza Montgomery, Stine Pedersen
- Architect of Record
- KSS Architects
- Experience Design
- G&A
- Landscape Architect
- SEED Design/Yaki Miodovnik
- Engineer & Sustainability
- BuroHappold Engineering
- Photographers
- Jeff Goldberg/Esto, Aislinn Weidele/Ennead Architects, Lauren Jeanette/Edelman Fossil Park & Museum
Awards
- 2025
- Green Good Design Award
- 2024
- Fast Company Innovation by Design, Sustainability
Press
- 2025
- "Edelman Fossil Park & Museum Review: Curating the Cretaceous" (Wall Street Journal, 4/2/2025)
- "Ennead Architects unveils fossil museum in New Jersey quarry" (Dezeen, 4/2/2025)
- "At Edelman Fossil Park & Museum, Ennead and KSS Reframe New Jersey’s Paleontological Legacy" (Architectural Record 3/31/2025)
- "A New Dinosaur Museum Rises From a Hole in the Ground in New Jersey" (The New York Times, 3/31/2025)
- "Land Before Time: Ennead Architects, KSS Architects and G&A complete Edelman Fossil Park & Museum of Rowan University" (The Architect's Newspaper 3/31/2025)
- "Edelman Fossil Park & Museum Of Rowan University Confirms Opening Date" (Forbes 2/20/2025)
- "Ennead completes new dinosaur fossil museum for New Jersey's Rowan University" (Archinect 3/31/2025)
- "Extra Extra: Before it was a pit behind a Lowe's, it was the site of a mass dinosaur extinction" (Gothamist 3/31/2025)
- "Jean and Ric Edelman Fossil Park & Museum of Rowan University Opens" (New Jersey Business Magazine 3/31/2025)
- "Looking for fossils behind the Lowe's: A dinosaur museum rises in an unlikely place" (USA Today 3/1/2025)
- 2024
- 2022
- Colin Cameron and Gurkirat Dhillon. "Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park Museum Goes Net-Zero" (South Jersey Climate News, 3/2022)
- Ogorodnikov, Vitali . "Construction Underway At Edelman Fossil Park And Museum In Mantua Township, NJ" (Philadelphia YIMBY, 3/2022)
- Phillips , Gary. "Can You Dig It? NJ Fossil Park & Museum to Offer Rare, Up-Close Look at Dinosaurs" (New Jersey Monthly, 2/22/2022)
- 2021
- "Ennead Architects And KSS Architects Unveil Design For Fossil Park Museum In New Jersey" (World Architecture, 10/12/2021)
- "Ennead collaborates with KSS Architects to create a modern window to the Cretaceous Period with the design of a new fossil park and museum in New Jersey" (Global Design News, 11/1/2021)
- Bellano, Anthony . "$73M NJ Fossil Park Will Shed Light On End Of Dinosaur Era" (Patch, 10/12/2021)
- Hickman, Matt. "Ennead breaks ground on a sprawling mass timber museum for a New Jersey fossil park" (The Architect's Newspaper, 10/12/2021)
- Malone, David. "Rowan University’s new fossil museum sits within an active dinosaur fossil dig" (Building Design + Construction, 10/29/2021)
- Miller, Linda. "Ennead and KSS Break Ground on Fossil Park Museum" (AIA New York)
- Ralph, Pat. "Rowan University to open fossil museum showing dinosaurs found in South Jersey" (Philly Voice, 10/12/2021)
- Schaffhauser, Dian. "Rowan U to Build $73M Fossil Park Museum" (Spaces4Learning, 10/26/2021)
- Steele, Allison . "‘South Jersey will be transformed’: Fossil museum coming to Gloucester County in 2023" (The Philadelphia Inquirer , 10/9/2021)