By Daniel Krieger
The Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation — the Columbus Avenue addition to the American Museum of Natural History — has an opening date: February 17, 2023.
The vast 230,000-square-foot structure, which will link many of the museum’s buildings on the four-block campus, will highlight one of the primary messages of the museum itself: the connection of all living things.
The Gilder Center will invite visitors to take part in an “exploration of the fascinating, far-reaching relationships among species that comprise life on Earth…revealing connections across the Museum’s rich collections, research initiatives, educational programs, and exhibits,” according to a press release.
The Center will include classrooms, an immersive theater, a library, and galleries for exhibitions. These offerings will include an insectarium, which will show the diversity of insects; a butterfly vivarium, with live butterflies; and a collections core, which will display millions of specimens from the museum’s archive.
Designed by Studio Gang, the $431-million project, which has been in the works since 2014, traveled a rocky road to realization. The plan was initially met with protests and multiple legal actions, mostly focused on the quarter acre of the adjoining Theodore Roosevelt Park that would be lost to the construction, and seven 100-year-old trees that would have to be — and were — cut down.
According to The New York Times, the center “extends a hand to the museum’s neighbors, some of whom were unhappy with the project’s initial incursion into the adjacent Theodore Roosevelt Park (the footprint was scaled back in response)….A new landscape design of the park by Reed Hilderbrand adds seating and new plantings.
For more information about the Gilder Center, click here.
Was this really worth all the effort and money? (a West 79th Street resident of 50 years)
A better question is were all the complaints and forced delays worth it? It is barely visible from the street. I know, because I’ve tried to look for it when I go by.
I personally can’t wait until winter when I can finally see most of it.
Uh, yeah? The world’s largest and most important natural history museum getting a renovation/expansion and new facilities for children. Sounds like a fantastic project. Hopefully they continue to expand.
Have not commented on this before but now that it’s done the new addition is really incongruous with the museum and the neighborhood. Maybe it’ll function well, IDK. We’ll go at some point and check out the interior. Glad though for the investment in the community.
Looks like it is more the museum for natural destruction. More cement and glass on the account of green space and hundred old years trees that were cut down. They should be ashamed.
Incredible architecture! Other worldly, a Fine-Art Photographer’s* dream !!
*Fine-Art Photography is hard to define, but it is NEITHER a snapshot NOR a tourist shot. It is not “taking a picture” but rather “making a picture”.
For example: the above “record” photo COULD ALSO have become Fine-Art IF the photographer had zoomed-in solely on the upper-left’s “eyes and mouth”, the center’s window and shadows, etc.
Outrageous, constructing a building in bucolic Manhattan!
Lots of doom, gloom and ominous predictions before the Rose Center, which turned out to be a pretty great thing for the neighborhood and city. I expect similar for this addition.
It will be a world class center for education, difficult to be against that I would think.
Ugh, it’s ugly and expensive.
They took away the lovely park space for this hideous looking Fred Flinstone town of Bedrock monstrosity? Sad times indeed.
It’s going to be sensational… I’ve been on the work committee ever since we broke ground at the museum and everything is on scheduled for opening day on February 17, 2023.
The grand opening will be spectacular!
What a wonderful added attraction to our UWS neighborhood.
Even the people that didn’t want this to happen, will now enjoy its ultimate redesigned landscape and stunning entrance. Something for everyone here to enjoy and learn from for all of us “Upper West Siders” for many
years to come for our kids and our kids kids and so on.
It’s time to come together and work together and enjoy together this wonderful culture of art right here in our neighborhood!
Stand proud, Upper West Sider, you deserve it‼️
Wonderful Mr. Amato… In deed, well said….
We need more positive people like you for our new generation coming up.
I am excited for the bugs and the butterflies! So much negativity here. I feel much worse for anyone stuck next to a private development project, at least we can all enjoy the museum.
Cut down seven 100 year old trees? No way to work around that? Disgraceful. If they profess to be so ecologically minded, why could they not save the trees? they did not even try.
I think it’s ugly, very ugly, but I do recognize the benefit for the community and the generations to come. I think we should all rally against protects like the Hudson Yards for example that bring nothing for the every day New Yorkers. The only ones able to enjoy that big chunk of the city are the rich and powerful.
This is a project for everyone and although I don’t personally like the looks of it, the educational benefit is still there.
Let’s embrace it and enjoy it.
Just one thing. The article says the new building will link all the other buildings on the 4 block campus. But all of the buildings were already linked.
This is from a NY Times article in March: “The building also seeks to improve the museum’s physical circulation, creating about 30 new connections within 10 existing buildings so visitors can flow more easily from one area to another. “We’ve been plagued with dead ends for years,” Futter said. “They are gone.
IMO this is a huge improvement. I’ve been taking kids there for 30+ years (pre Covid) and can’t wait to see the changes. : )