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

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 campus master plan. Visitor circulation is enhanced to better accommodate the museum’s rising annual attendance, 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.

Niche spaces tucked within this central space will house exhibition elements designed by Ralph Appelbaum Associates 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.

The building's caverns, bridges, and arching walls will be formed using an industrial application of concrete that showcases its liquid properties. This technique, primarily used for infrastructure, 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.