Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation
Courtesy of Studio Gang Architects, 2018
The spectacular new facility will add exhibition galleries, state-of-the-art classrooms, an immersive theater, and a redesigned library, revealing more of the Museum’s scientific collections and linking 10 Museum buildings to improve visitor flow throughout the campus.
Inside the Gilder Center
The Kenneth C. Griffin Exploration Atrium, a soaring, four-story civic space, will serve as the gateway to the Gilder Center and open into Theodore Roosevelt Park.
The Susan and Peter J. Solomon Family Insectarium, a 6,210-square-foot gallery, will introduce visitors to the extraordinary variety of Earth’s most diverse and abundant animal groups through large-scale models, interactive exhibits, and live insects, with special sections on insects of New York City and human health.
A 2017 rendering of the Insectarium on the first floor of the Gilder Center, a place for family and general learning as well as for structured school visits by groups from every grade. Courtesy of Ralph Appelbaum Associates
The Davis Family Butterfly Vivarium will be a new, 3,152-square-foot year-round living exhibit featuring free-flying butterflies in a variety of “environments” and opportunities to use interactive microscopes, discover the butterfly life cycle, and interact with butterfly experts.
A rendering of the year-round Butterfly Vivarium on the second floor of the Gilder Center.Courtesy of Ralph Appelbaum Associates
Collections Core
The Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. Collections Core, which will house approximately 4 million specimens from the Museum’s scientific collections, will feature three stories of visible research and collections spaces providing glimpses into the Museum's collections as well as an exhibition of floor-to-ceiling arrays offering insight into evidence and process of scientific discovery in various types of collections, from fossils to insects, with the first and second floors supported by the Macaulay Family Foundation.
Education Zones
State-of-the-art education spaces in the Gilder Center will include new classrooms within the Josh and Judy Weston Middle School Learning Zone, the High School Learning Zone, and the College and Career Readiness Zone, with adjacent renovated spaces in the existing Museum complex creating the Michael Vlock Family Learning Zone and a Teacher Learning Zone.
Research Library and Learning Center
The Museum’s Library is being redesigned and re-situated for easier access by the public, with a new scholars’ reading room, exhibition alcove, group study room, and adult learning zone in the new Gottesman Research Library and Learning Center.
Invisible Worlds Theater
A new, immersive theater in the Gilder Center will reveal new frontiers of scientific research through scientific visualizations, letting visitors experience phenomena from across the natural world made accessible—and visible—through new imaging technologies.