Location
New York, NY
Status
Under Construction
Client
American Museum of Natural History
Type
Cultural, Educational
Size
230,000 sf new construction and renovation
Sustainability
Targeting LEED Gold
The latest addition to New York’s historic American Museum of Natural History, the Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation will embody the Museum’s integrated mission of science education and exhibition.
At a time of urgent need for better public understanding of science and greater access to science education, the Gilder Center will offer new ways to learn about our world and share in the excitement of scientific discovery.
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.
“We uncovered a way to vastly improve visitor circulation and museum functionality, while tapping into the desire for exploration and discovery that is so emblematic of science and also such a big part of being human. Upon entering the space, natural daylight from above and sight lines to various activities inside invite movement through the Central Exhibition Hall on a journey toward deeper understanding. The architectural design grew out of the museum’s mission.”
—Jeanne Gang
Creating approximately thirty connections among ten different buildings, the Gilder Center will include the five-story Collections Core, housing millions of specimens and artifacts from the Museum's collection; the Insectarium, the first Museum gallery specifically dedicated to insects in more than 50 years; the Butterfly Vivarium, a year-round exhibit that doubles the space of the existing seasonal butterfly conservatory; and the Invisible Worlds Immersive Theater, showcasing cutting-edge scientific technologies.
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.
Aerial photograph of the existing Museum campus.
Consultant Team
Zubatkin Owner Representative, LLC, owner representative
Davis Brody Bond, executive architect
Ralph Appelbaum Associates, exhibition design
Arup, structural engineer, acoustical and audio visual consultants
Buro Happold, MEP/FP/façade consultant
Langan, civil and geotechnical engineer
Reed Hilderbrand, landscape architect
Pentagram, signage design
Tamschick Media + Space with Boris Micka Associates, theater design
Atelier Ten, sustainability
Renfro Design Group, lighting consultant
AECOM Tishman, construction manager
Awards
Jury Award, Unbuilt - Cultural, Architizer A+ Awards, 2020
High Commendation, AR Future Projects Awards, MIPIM/The Architectural Review, 2020
Winner, 67th Annual Progressive Architecture Awards, Architect Magazine, 2020
Winner, Archello, Best Projects of 2020
Honorable Mention, The Architect's Newspaper Best of Design Awards, Unbuilt – Cultural Category, 2019
Finalist, Future Projects - Culture Category, World Architecture Festival, 2019
"Whereas the museum has always projected a kind of imposing, inscrutable majesty, its new building is consciously more porous, with welcoming floor-to-ceiling classroom windows...The center’s transparency also extends a hand to the museum’s neighbors."
Studio Gang's Gilder Center at the American Museum of Natural History was selected as a winner in the 67th Annual Progressive Architecture Awards, recognizing how the project uses design to draw connections between individual users and the communities around it.
"A canyon-like atrium built of shotcrete highlights the long-awaited expansion."
"The undulating extension will sit at the heart of the ten-building campus, creating approximately 30 new connections between the existing buildings as well as a vast new series of modern galleries, breathing new life into a sprawling complex."
New York Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman offers a fresh take on the American Museum of Natural History’s latest expansion designed by Studio Gang.
Three projects designed by Studio Gang have won four 2020 Architizer A+ Awards, which recognize the best architecture, spaces, and products from across the globe.