Project Name: Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park & Museum

Location: Mantua Township, New Jersey, United States

Design Team: Ennead Architects

Total Floor Area: 44,000 ft²

Completion: 2025

Photography: Brett Beyer

Feature:

Project - As a pioneering example of sustainable design excellence, architecture studio Ennead Architects has created the Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park & Museum — a carbon net-zero facility that transforms a former quarry into an immersive paleontological center. The 44,000-square-foot structure represents a significant advancement in sustainable architecture, recognized as one of New Jersey's largest public net-zero carbon emissions buildings.

The landmark Mantua Township installation showcases the concept's core innovation: distinctive "lens" timber-clad volumes, each rectangular form tapering inward to create central windows, establishing what the designers call "windows through deep time" — a signature expression of Ennead's design philosophy. Strategically positioned on an elevated ridge between two quarry pits, the building integrates respectfully with the site, featuring two storeys on the north side while reducing to a single storey facing the dig area.

Materiality plays a crucial role in the project, with a hybrid structural system of glulam timber, concrete, and steel selected not merely for sustainability credentials but to enhance the building's expressiveness. The generous glazed elements are carefully positioned to control solar gain while creating visual connections between interior and exterior, framing the surrounding 65-acre fossil park landscape.

What distinguishes the Edelman Fossil Park & Museum from conventional museums is its comprehensive approach to sustainability. Following the Energy Petal Certification of the Living Building Challenge, the project employs all-electric mechanical systems and geothermal wells to ensure the building maintains a zero-carbon footprint, while its east-west orientation maximizes energy efficiency.

Ennead's design team has created a multifunctional space encompassing immersive exhibition galleries, a 138-seat theater, VR studio, conservation area, and café. Exhibition design by G&A studios guides visitors through the Late Cretaceous Period through life-sized dinosaur models and interactive exhibits that connect ancient extinction events to contemporary climate challenges.

The Edelman Fossil Park & Museum emerges as a significant contribution to contemporary architectural practice — a project that merges scientific discovery, architectural innovation, and environmental stewardship, proving that sustainable design need not compromise architectural expression and user experience.

Design Team - Ennead Architects is an internationally-acclaimed practice based in New York City with offices in Los Angeles and Shanghai, and a presence in South Florida. With over 59 years of history, the firm is led by ten partners: Grace Chen, Stephen Chu, V. Guy Maxwell, Kevin McClurkan, Molly McGowan, Richard Olcott, Tomas Rossant, Peter Schubert, David Tepper and Thomas Wong.

As a 200+ person company, Ennead Architects is internationally recognized for planning and design excellence, with a diverse portfolio including new construction, renovation and expansion, historic preservation, interior design and master planning, as well as pre-design advisory services and professional counsel to public and private institutions and government agencies.

Ennead creates powerful and dynamic designs that advance new paradigms, reinforce institutional identity, establish a sense of place, facilitate shared experiences, enhance user performance and improve existing conditions. The firm's collaborative process is based in extensive research involving the analysis of context, public image, emerging technologies and a commitment to sustainable solutions.

Since its founding in 1963, shaping the public realm has been central to Ennead's practice. They have been acclaimed for the formal and affective power of their work, for technical virtuosity, for sustainable design, for significant contributions to the cultural life of communities and the enhancement of physical contexts. Ennead is committed to the transformative development of integrated architectural solutions and, in partnership with project teams, approaches inherent challenges as opportunities to enhance vital connections to natural and social environments.