The Ark of the World is conceived as an institution that celebrates the ecological diversity, environmental preservation, eco-tourism and cultural heritage of Costa Rica. It is a tourist destination situated in the heart of the mountainous primary rain forests of the country's interior. It is a mixture of natural history museum, ecology center and contemporary art museum. The architectural design is inspired by the tropical flora and fauna indigenous to the country in both its form, color and symbolism. The site is designed to accommodate a primary entry through a garden of water filled columns which keep the site cool and moist. From the entry lobby the three types of exhibit are both visible and accessible. There is a central vertical space and helicoidal stair that rises three stories and terminates in a glass fiber reinforced fabric covered canopy from which visitors can view into the canopies of the surrounding rain forests. This central vertical space is filled with representations of the Costa Rican environment and serves as an orientation zone for eco-tourists. Galleries for the exhibition of contemporary art inspired by the natural environment surround this vertical space in a circular fashion. These exhibitions will be drawn from local as well as international artists. The ground floor of the building extends as a single story natural history exhibition designed around E.O.Wilson's concept of consilience. The Consilience Museum contains exhibitions of the global environment and of natural history and ecology. This ground floor museum unfolds into the landscape and terminates in a stage and amphitheater for outdoor evening music performances and for the event of the Ark of the World Awards in ecology that are being launched along with the building.