Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation at the American Museum of Natural History

The latest addition to New York’s historic American Museum of Natural History, the Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation will embody the Museum’s integrated mission of science education and exhibition. At a time of urgent need for better public understanding of science and greater access to science education, the Gilder Center will offer new ways to learn about our world and share in the excitement of scientific discovery. The design for the Gilder Center reclaims the physical heart of the museum and completes connections between existing galleries that were originally envisioned in the museum’s 19th-century master plan. Visitor circulation is enhanced to better accommodate the museum’s annual visitation, which over the past several decades has grown from approximately 3 to 5 million. Informed by processes found in nature, the Central Exhibition Hall, which will serve as the Museum’s new Columbus Avenue entrance, will form a continuous, flowing spatial experience along an east-west axis. The design will encourage visitors to move beneath and across connective bridges and along sculpted walls with openings that reveal the Museum’s many programs. Upon entering the space, natural daylight from above and sight lines to various activities inside invite movement through the Central Exhibition Hall on a journey toward deeper understanding. Niche spaces tucked within this central space will house exhibition elements and exciting new learning spaces, while also revealing more of the Museum’s extensive scientific collections. The public will be able to engage with innovative tools used by scientists to gain a deeper understanding of our world and how science is conducted today. Program The Gilder Center will include the five-story Collections Core, housing millions of specimens and artifacts from the Museum’s world-class collection; the immersive Invisible Worlds Theater; the Museum Library, one of the most extensive and important natural history libraries in the world; a 6,210-sf Insectarium, showcasing specimens from the Museum’s insect collection—one of the world’s largest—as well as live insects; a 3,152-sf Butterfly Vivarium, a year-round living exhibit that offers a variety of opportunities for visitors to observe and learn about butterflies; and Learning Zones and classrooms that enhance STEM teaching and learning. Design Understanding the museum’s mission to improve visitor circulation and create multidisciplinary spaces for science and education led to an investigation into natural forces and the ways in which they shape our world at many scales. This involved the study of glaciers, canyons, and riverbeds—spaces that encourage discovery and wonder and record the flow of water and time—as well as experiments exploring how heat, erosion, and dissolution affect materials like ice, foam, and wood, leading to exciting spatial conditions. Translating these experiments into the digital realm, a parametric model simulated water eroding walls into structural arches. A full-scale mockup was formed using an industrial application of concrete that showcases its liquid properties. This technique, originally developed for infrastructural applications, creates a continuous interior without material seams or joints that becomes structural as it cures. The interior of this exciting space will demonstrate the structural principles subject to gravity without the traditional waste of formwork. Size 195,000 sf Sustainability Targeting LEED Gold.