The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) unveiled developing details of the scientific and educational spaces, programs and exhibits that will be housed in the Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation (Gilder Center).
The 235,000-square-foot Gilder Center project, which includes 194,000 square feet in a new building together with connections to key areas in existing buildings and modernizations of existing spaces, is to be built at a total projected budget of $340 million.
The Gilder Center is being designed by Studio Gang Architects under the leadership of Jeanne Gang, with exhibit design by Ralph Appelbaum Associates and a new design for a portion of the adjacent Theodore Roosevelt Park by landscape architects Reed Hilderbrand. The facility is expected to open in 2020, at the conclusion of the Museum’s 150th anniversary celebration.
The Gilder Center will reveal modern science to visitors of all ages through immersive exhibition techniques and innovative educational programming underpinned by the Museum’s scientific research and its superb collections of more than 33 million specimens and artifacts, amassed from more than 145 years of exploration.
The Gilder Center will also expand the presentation of the diversity of life on Earth into the vital area of insects, which the Museum has never before publicly addressed with such vibrancy and depth.
The Museum’s education facilities and offerings—which today serve approximately 500,000 school group and camp group visitors each year, as well as thousands more who participate in after-school programs, family visits, and professional development programs for teachers—will be transformed by the Gilder Center project in the most comprehensive addition and modernization of educational spaces in the Museum in nearly 90 years.
Upon completion of the project, approximately 75% of the Museum’s classroom facilities will be new or completely renovated, allowing the Museum to serve students and teachers in new ways that align with national educational standards and offer high-quality science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning relevant to today’s students and tomorrow’s workforce.
By building largely within existing space and incorporating approximately 41,000 square feet of renovated space, Studio Gang’s design prioritizes reuse of existing campus assets to minimize the need for new construction and reduces the impact on mature trees and plantings in Theodore Roosevelt Park. Source and images Courtesy of Studio Gang.