Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation

The spectacular new facility will add exhibition galleries, state-of-the-art classrooms, an immersive theater, and a redesigned library, reveal more of the Museum’s scientific collections, and link 10 Museum buildings to improve visitor flow throughout the campus.

Inside the Gilder Center

Insectarium

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

Vivarium

The 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

This 2017 rendering shows the multi-story, glass-walled Collections Core, which is a critical resource and a spectacular feature of the Gilder Center, revealing the specimens and artifacts that scientists use to investigate and answer fundamental questions, identify new species, and formulate new research questions and directions. 
Courtesy of Ralph Appelbaum Associates

The Collections Core, which will house approximately 4 million specimens from the Museum’s scientific collections, will feature observation points where, for the first time, visitors will be able to see into areas where students and researchers from all over the world can access scientific specimens.

Education Zones

A rendering of one of the next-generation classrooms in the Middle School Zone of the Gilder Center, serving grades 5 through 8.
Courtesy of Ralph Appelbaum Associates

State-of-the-art education spaces in the Gilder Center will include new classrooms within a Middle School Learning Zone and a High School Learning Zone, with adjacent renovated spaces in the existing Museum complex providing a 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.

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.