There is perhaps no museum in the world that does not feature stone as a formal ingredient. Think of the warm hues of Renzo Piano’s Fondazione Beyeler in Basel, the icy rigour of David Chipperfield’s James Simon Galerie in Berlin, the modernism of Richard Meier’s Getty Center in Los Angeles, the sober elegance of Alvaro Siza’s Galician Centre for Contemporary Art in Santiago de Compostela. None of the most famous designers has shied away from this theme: Vittorio Gregotti in the Centro Cultural di Bèlem in Lisbon; Mario Botta in the Mart in Rovereto; Fumihiko Maki in the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto; Bernard Tschumi in the new Acropolis Museum in Athens; Rafael Viñoly in the Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio. The list is very long and includes every part of the world.

We owe the renewed interest in museum architecture to the masters of the 20th century. For example, the sensitivity of Carlo Scarpa, who turned the walls into a sort of artisanal poem in all his museum displays. Or the lyrical harmony with Michelangelo’s Pietà by the B.B.P.R. in Milan’s Castello Sforzesco; the refined classicism of Louis Kahn in the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas; the geometric expressiveness of Marcel Breuer in the Whitney Museum in New York. Stone is always the protagonist, its tactile and chromatic values amplifying what the museum holds inside like a universal treasure.

The objects and materials of the American Museum of Natural History seem to cover the whole range of human knowledge. Here, scientific rigour, astonishment and surprise mingle. The sense of wonder is combined with the approach of research and study. The world of natural phenomena is read both through collecting and experimental interpretation. Human history itself is seen from an anthropological perspective. Above all, an idea of habitat that encompasses the different geographical areas of the planet and reaches out to ever wider horizons.

From an architectural point of view, the museum shows itself as a building site in evolution. From the original Romanesque Revival layout to the 20th century additions, from the recent annexes of the planetarium to the current extensions. Even the exhibition criteria are constantly being updated: the rigid 19th century classifications have been transformed into thematic islands, real places of identification. This leads us to believe that the pulsating outdoor life of New York has penetrated into the museum.

The second stone is even more fascinating. Marmi Ghirardi has specially quarried it from the Sterling Hill mining site in the village of Ogdensburg, New Jersey. The ancient zinc and iron mine was opened in the 17th century, so it is itself important in U.S. history. Closed in 1990, it is now a museum and its fame derives mainly from the many rare if not unique materials. These include franklinite, zincite and willemite, which are oxides of zinc and iron. The so-called Franklin Marble is of Precambrian age, that is dating back to over one billion and one hundred and fifty million years. The rock, when hit by UV rays, shows a very high fluorescence, the colors light up and the nature of mineralogical curiosity stands out.

On this occasion, with its consolidated experience, Marmi Ghirardi took care of the technical management and excavation of a block weighing several tons. Thanks to the Italian technical equipment and the wisdom of intervention and consultancy, the shapeless material became a real artifact. The vertigo that the incalculable dimension of geological eras causes us, today presents itself to our eyes in the form of a museum object. A jewel that enchants like a work of art.