Architect chosen for city museum

The architect who will design the new Museum of Bristol has been announced.

Lab architecture studio has been given the task of creating a harbourside museum to showcase the city's history and heritage.

The company was chosen from a shortlist of eight internationally-acclaimed firms after 50 originally submitted bids to work on the project.

It is hoped the Museum of Bristol, on the site of the city's Industrial Museum, will open in 2009.

The council hope remodelling the present museum - at a cost of about £18.5m - will boost visitor numbers from 100,000 a year to 250,000.

Exhibition space will be doubled and thousands of exhibits which are currently out of sight will be catalogued, conserved and put on display.

Bristol City Council was recently awarded £853,000 to develop plans for the museum by the Heritage Lottery Fund, which also pledged £10.27m towards the cost of building it.

Councillor Richard Pyle said: "Bristol deserves and will have a world-class museum. This is an opportunity to tell the world what a great city this is."