Excerpt:
In the late 1970s, interest in a natural history museum grew beyond the reach of the sciences. The trustees wished to add programs and facilities for the general public to the existing school-focused program at Fernbank
Science Center.
Fernbank, Inc. hired Graham Gund Architects to design the striking, 160,000 square foot museum. Ground was broken in 1989, and on October 5, 1992, Fernbank Museum of Natural History opened, becoming the only natural history museum in the world located in a natural environment.
Since then, the Museum has continued to grow and expand its collection. In 2001 Fernbank became the first museum in the world to display the world's largest dinosaur, Argentinosaurus. This gargantuan sauropod is now a permanent feature in the Museum's 86-foot tall atrium along with the world's largest carnivorous dinosaur, Giganotosaurus, a flock of pterosaurs and a variety of other contemporaneous species in the Museum's newest permanent exhibition, Giants of the Mesozoic.