Aquarium Designs Chosen

The New York Aquarium has finally chosen the winning designs that will encompass the exterior of the aquarium.

The designs which were part of a competition held last year was narrowed down to three. Two months ago, withholding a formal announcement, the Wildlife Conservation Society approved and selected the designs created by the Philadelphia-based firm, Wallace, Roberts & Todd, and Barcelona-based Cloud 9.

As reported by the New York Sun:

The design is intended better to blend the aquarium's multiple Robert Moses-era buildings with the nearby beach. The Coney Island-based aquarium sits at the end of string of parking lots and currently has no direct access to the neighboring boardwalk or ocean.The plans for the site tie into a larger effort to revitalize the bygone amusement hub, which now lies eerily dormant for half the year.
Representatives at WCS did not return calls for comment and a spokeswoman for Wallace, Roberts & Todd declined to comment.Coney Island natives, who have long viewed the exterior of the aquarium as uninviting, welcomed the decision to revamp the 50-year-old complex.

"The aquarium has always been hidden away and walled in," a Coney Island historian, Charles Denson, said. "You can't see the ocean from the aquarium. It's right on the Atlantic, but there's nothing that connects it to the beach."

New York Aquarium Chooses New Design [NY Sun]
Design Proposal for the New York Aquarium [Enric Ruiz Geli]