The Perot Museum of Nature & Science in Dallas, Texas, US has received a US$25m (£18m, €16m) funding boost from the Reese-Jones Foundation.
The grant pushes the museum's fundraising efforts past the US$150m mark. The total cost of the museum is expected to top US$185m.
The museum's new home, designed by Thom Mayne of LA-based architects Morphosis, is currently being built at Victory Park in downtown Dallas.
The 180,000sq ft museum will include five floors housing 10 permanent exhibition galleries, including a children's museum, an outdoor playspace, an educational wing equipped with six labs, a 300-seat digital cinema, an auditorium, a café, a retail store and offices.
Exhibitions will include the Being Alive, Being Human exhibit, the Electricity & Distribution Gallery, the Engineering Innovations Lab, the Paleontology Hall and the Science of Sports exhibit.
The museum is expected to open by 2012.
The Museum of Nature & Science is the result of a 2006 merger of three cultural institutions - the Dallas Museum of Natural History, The Science Place and the Dallas Children's Museum.
