The firm will work with the design team on overhauling the museum’s controversial Elgin Marbles gallery.
The British Museum seeks to appoint a cost consultant and contract administrator to transform one-third of its galleries.
The trustees of the Bloomsbury Museum have published a contract notice inviting interested firms to bid for the £4.5m, 11-year role on the Western Range project.
The scheme will see the redevelopment of around 15,000 sq m of floor space, which the museum says needs urgent “repair and re-imagining”.
The cost consultant role will run for 11 years.
This encompasses around 7,500 sq m of gallery space, including the museum’s parts that house its ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome collections and the controversial Elgin Marbles, as well as 4,500 sq m of back-of-house storage space.
Five design teams have been shortlisted for the job, including teams led by David Chipperfield Architects, Eric Parry Architects and OMA. A winner is expected to be announced early in the new year.
The Western Range consists of separate buildings added to the original grade I-listed museum building over time. The project’s exact site outline and phasing have yet to be finalised.
The cost consultant will work with the chosen design team from RIBA stages two to seven, which, the museum said, will deliver an “architecturally significant, long-lasting, robust intervention, founded on an effective approach to sustainability”.
This will address issues with the existing buildings while setting reimagined collection displays in new, permanent gallery spaces envisaged as “engaging contemporary architecture, in juxtaposition to the highly significant and already celebrated listed buildings on the site”.
Interested firms have until 8 January to send in tenders, with five firms expected to be shortlisted for the job.