Seed Vault for the Ages

"Arctic seed vault opens doors for 100 million seeds" physorg.com (February 26, 2008)

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is presented as dealing with "rapidly diminishing biodiversity," but it sounds like a pretty good idea. I rather hope they've got some dutch elm seeds in there: that species is dying out, thanks to a bug-born disease.

The building isn't just a silo: the architects paid attention to aesthetics as well as practical concerns.

The physorg.com article is a fairly detailed writeup.

Depending on the species, the seeds should last thousands to tens of thousands of years.