The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation (SOLEIF) and the National Park Service/U.S. Department of the Interior unveiled plans for the museum on Ellis Island in New York Harbor last week. The new building will serve as the center-piece of a substantial “beautification plan” to make the famous site more accessible for visitors.The design for the 26,000-foot new museum comes from New York architecture firm FXFOWLE, who has given maximum priority to best practices for sustainability, including a green roof-scape as well as “bird-safe” windows; the interior and exterior spaces are to be constructed from “materials native to Liberty Island and materials that were already used to build the Statue of Liberty and Fort Wood, including Stony Creek granite, bronze, plaster,” according to an official statement; additionally, the museum will be “set above 500-year flood levels and built to withstand hurricane force winds.”“From the start, the design of the Statue of Liberty Museum was conceived as an extension of the park,” Nicholas Garrison, Partner and Project Designer at FXFOWLE explained during the unveiling. “The goal was to engage with the park’s formal, axial plan and respond to its spectacular setting. The island’s landscape is lifted and merged with the architecture to create space for the Museum in a new geology. The building’s angular forms and spaces are shaped by its views and the irregularity of the water’s edge, celebrating liberty.”The $70 million museum is the first new construction on the island since SOLEIF took over responsibility for the historic restoration and preservation in the 1980s, and is intended to provide the more than 4.3 million annual visitors to the Statue of Liberty with information about the statue’s history and legacy. The current Statue of Liberty Museum is located inside the Statue of Liberty monument, and has been accessible only to a small percentage of visitors following increased safety measures after September 11, 2001.Fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg was appointed the “godmother” of the beautification project and chairs the campaign to raise $100 million for the construction and upkeep of the museum, which is scheduled to open in 2019.The exhibition inside the spacious new location will be created by Edwin Schlossberg and ESI Design New York, who will focus on “the history of Liberty, her original concept, design, construction,” and her 1986 centennial restoration organized in 1986 by SOLEIF. “Our goal is for visitors to take away a richer picture of what the Statue of Liberty has meant to people throughout her history—not only in this nation but around the world—and to see themselves as part of the amazing story of liberty’s future,” Edwin Schlossberg, President and Principal Designer of ESI Design, explained.  “With state-of-the-art exhibitions and iconic artifacts including the Statue’s original torch, the new Statue of Liberty Museum will ensure that future generations know, understand, and appreciate all that Lady Liberty represents in America and around the world,” Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island Superintendent John Piltzecker added. Read more