New England Aquarium - Cancelled Expansions

Cancelled Expansions

In the late 1980s there were plans to sell the current land to build a bigger aquarium in the Charlestown Navy Yard (Drydock #5). The project was to cost $150 million and was to take up 278,300 square feet (25,850 m2) of land. Designs had the drydock to be flooded and at one exhibit visitors were 19 feet (5.8 m) below ground. If it had been built it would have been the largest aquarium made at that time. The proposed aquarium was predicted to attract around 2 million visitors each year. However, the proposal to move the aquarium was cancelled in 1991, when neighbors of the proposed site objected it and when the aquarium couldn't make a reasonable amount of money from the Central Wharf site.

When the site movement was cancelled, the aquarium proposed to expand the current aquarium on both sides in 1992 (East wing expansion and West wing expansion). The East wing project would have been a 79,000 - 90,000 sq ft (8,400 m2). expansion costing $43 million including a 1.1 million gallon Gulf Stream Exhibit. Also it included a 20 ft (6.1 m) x 30 ft (9.1 m) window of the new 550,000 gallon Gulf of Maine Exhibit. It was proposed to be finished in 2004, but was cancelled after 9/11 due to the attendance dropping because of fear of bombing of crowd areas, the Big Dig project closing the Aquarium T stop, and the rising cost of the project, up to $125 million. In order to pay back the money they raised, they had to have major cuts ($1.4 millions in debt), causing the aquarium to lose its accreditation in 2003. However, now the aquarium is back on track financially and is doing very well. A new facility, if built in 2012, would cost about $400 million to build.