EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS: Utah’s striking Natural History Museum in Salt Lake City

The <a href="http://nhmu.utah.edu/" target="_blank">Utah Natural History Museum</a> recently moved into its new home at the <a href="http://nhmu.utah.edu/museum/our-new-home" target="_blank">Rio Tinto Center</a> at the base of the Wasatch Mountains in Salt Lake City, and we were on the scene to take a peek. Designed by Todd Schliemann and New York City-based <a href="http://ennead.com/" target="_blank">Ennead Architects</a>, the striking museum is home to dinosaurs, artifacts, fossils, animal specimens, minerals and much, much more. Made with copper mined locally from the other side of the city, the interactive museum and repository was built as a representation of the physical geography of Utah with its vast canyons, soaring mountains, and expansive plateaus. Since the museum is dedicated to the natural wonders of the state, it's no surprise that it was designed to help preserve them by minimizing its impact on the environment. Currently the museum is awaiting LEED Gold certification, and this author was lucky enough to take a tour of the museum to get a first-hand look inside and speak with Todd Schliemann about the design process.

The Utah Natural History Museum is the caretaker of 1.2 million objects from the fields of paleontology, archeology, ethnology, entomology, vertebrate zoology, mineralogy, botany and malacology.

Not only does the museum work to preserve these precious artifacts, they also actively work to study their collection and educate residents, schoolchildren and visitors.

The new museum was built to house a significant portion of the collection and to provide interactive exhibits about the natural history of the region.

To come up with a design that represented the physical geography of Utah without being too literal, <a href="http://ennead.com/#/partners/schliemann" target="_blank">Todd Schliemann</a> came for an extensive visit to tour the landscape.

The faceted volume is covered in shimmering stripes of copper and is buried deep into the hillside as though it were a giant rock that has emerged from the earth.

The canyon serves as the main lobby and a multi-purpose space and can be transformed for a variety of events when needed.

A giant curio exhibit gives you a glimpse of the hundreds of thousands of items the museum has collected.

An exhibit on the top floor about climate change.

The rooftop deck during the installation of the solar panels.

The solar panels are currently installed and producing power for the building.

An exhibit on the Native People of Utah.

A classroom for field trips and children's activities.

Another curio wall with animals and insects.

The strata of rock in the Grand Staircase.

The main exhibition room was designed to resemble the geography of utah.

A recreation of an archeological dig site in Utah.

Dinosaurs! Rawwrrr!

The family tree of triceratops-like dinosaurs.

Upon exiting, visitors get a glimpse up into the canyon.

The canyon offers views of the mountains and the sunset.