Studio Gang’s extension for the AMNH, the new five-story high Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation, is a piece of architecture that seeks to repair our relationship to nature by restoring a sense of wonder towards it. A large skylight fills the main atrium with sunrays; visitors lift their heads and discover a series of cave like forms that lead to passageways, bridges, and classrooms. Desire to discover these curious and beautiful shapes helps us leave the city and bustling Columbus Avenue far behind and enter the realm of nature. The strong materiality of these cave-like forms is guaranteed to amaze the visitor upon entry to this newest addition to the Museum: their aesthetic appearance and material quality are such that they can easily be associated with rock formations found in Central Park, enhancing a sense of organic quality to the architecture. We have walked into a museum that opens our eyes to see nature. Originally dated 1877, the AMNH has been added to over the last century and the result is a difficult-to-navigate maze-like journey among the patchwork of different halls and exhibition galleries that span four city blocks. Indeed, the AMNH is in much need of repair, reconstruction and rehaul. As we know it today, the museum is an amalgam of different buildings dated from different periods, the core skeleton for the pathways form a cross shape that forces visitors to backtrack to the center of the building to continue onto their journey. By adding to this structure with a series of connective galleries and bridges the Gilder Center improves the fluidity of wayfinding between the disparate pavilions and buildings of the massive museum. The result is ameliorated experience for the over five million guests the museum welcomes per year.
New natural histories: Jeanne Gang’s Gilder Center is a radical manifesto
Studio Gang integrates nature and architecture in the extension of New York’s AMNH, with a project that questions the very founding concepts of this kind of museum.
Alvaro Keding/© AMNH
Photo by Iwan Baan
Photo by Iwan Baan
Photo by Iwan Baan
Photo by Iwan Baan
Photo by Iwan Baan
Photo by Iwan Baan
Photo by Iwan Baan
Photo by Iwan Baan
Photo by Iwan Baan
Photo by Iwan Baan
Photo by Iwan Baan
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- Béatrice Grenier
- 03 May 2023
The AMNH is not only long overdue for physical repairs and better connectivity, but the institution also urgently needs to create a visitor experience that contributes to healing our relationship and attitude towards nature, which as Studio Gang’s architecture makes clear, starts with the institution’s overall posture and hospitality conditions. Indeed, the architecture Gang has conceived proposes a totally different kind of welcoming to the original entrance, the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall, which was designed by John Russell Pope (1874-1937). The original hall was completed in 1936 and formed part of New York State's official memorial to President Theodore Roosevelt. Sitting exactly opposite each other on the eastern and western sides of the building on Central Park West and Columbus Avenue respectively, the two entrances are diametrically opposed in tone and symbolism. A critique of this symbolism is radically introduced on the western side of the building by Gang. Ascending the steps on the eastern side and entering the vestibule is akin to the experience of entering the Roman Pantheon: two giant orders of Corinthian columns measuring fifteen meter high create a monumentalizing effect. Man’s domination over different non-Euro-American peoples and over nature is reaffirmed in the vestibule namely with the mural panels painted by William Andrew Mackay (1876-1939). Roosevelt, broad shouldered and dressed as an explorer, assertively stands above a Nubian lion and lioness, flanked by his gun bearers. Up until the removal of the statue of Theodore Roosevelt, this composition would have perfectly echoed the figures of the Native America Man and African man standing on either side of the explorer on the doorstep of the Museum.
Entering from Central Park West, it is unclear what the AMNH has to do with nature if not man’s domination of it. On the opposite side of the building, with the new Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation, Gang proposes a powerful counter argument and subversive stance towards the symbols imbedded in the original hall. Gang’s architecture is a radical manifesto advocating for a new posture of humility towards nature. Indeed, Gang imbeds nature in architecture: entering from Columbus Avenue, visitors are faced with what looks like a geological formation—the building’s surface has nothing resembling the mechanical treatment of the smooth surface of granite of the neoclassical façade on Central Park West. The repeated cave-like forms are the result of a process called shot concrete which requires hand finishing and hence give their fluid appearance. The latter punctuate the entrance hall and contribute to blurring the line between an architecture that is natural versus one that is man-made. What’s more, the new Western entrance is stripped of any representation of man. Curvilinear, asymmetrical, the entrance is precisely anti-façade and immediately suggests, before setting foot in the institution, a certain modesty. Indeed, it lacks the organizational intent of the dominant columns punctuating the eastern entrance but seeks to achieve a decentralizing form of hospitality. The immediate signal given to the visitor is that one does not enter the building to understand man’s rationalization of nature but rather one that questions this precise history of domination, which has been at the center of the enlightenment and at the very foundation of the institution of the museum of natural history itself.
By blurring the line between nature and made, and restoring a sense of wonder towards the living, stripping the institution of old nineteenth century ideas of domination and classification of nature, Gang turns our attention to the rest of the museum and the urgent need to renew and repair its logic. Indeed, if one isn’t curious or doesn’t feel moved by nature in an institution dedicated to its study, how will we, as a society, ever be convinced of the importance of the most urgent and pressing question of our time, which is to say our ability to protect it for the future.
Beatrice Grenier is a curator and writer based in Paris. She is the Director of Curatorial Affairs at Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain.
Entrance on Columbus Avenue The undulating façade of the Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation is clad in Milford pink granite and features a diagonal stone-panel pattern that evokes both the phenomenon of geological layering and the richly textured, coursing surface of the stone masonry on the 77th Street side of the Museum.
The Staircase in the Kenneth C. Griffin Exploration Atrium From the top of the staircase in the Kenneth C. Griffin Exploration Atrium of the Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation, visitors can take in the full scope of the five-story Griffin Atrium, including spectacular views of the third-floor bridge, apertures throughout, the Susan and Peter J. Solomon Family Insectarium on the first floor, and the Davis Family Butterfly Vivarium on the second level. The staircase is designed with deep treads and high risers on one side, allowing visitors to gather for rest and conversation and providing seating for programs.
Architecture in the Kenneth C. Griffin Exploration Atrium Designed by Studio Gang, the Kenneth C. Griffin Exploration Atrium is the gateway to the new Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation. This five-story space is illuminated by towering windows, skylight apertures, and inset floor lights speckled throughout. From this fourth-floor vantage point, visitors can take in the full scope of the Griffin Atrium, with sightlines to new galleries and spaces including the third-floor bridge and the David S. and Ruth L. Gottesman Research Library and Learning Center on the fourth floor.
Fourth-Floor Bridge Links and Connections Bridges in the new Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation offer visitors a variety of stunning vantage points from which to explore the space. This fourth-floor bridge features views of the Kenneth C. Griffin Exploration Atrium and links the fourth-floor education suite, The Studio, to the new David S. and Ruth L. Gottesman Research Library and Learning Center and the connection to the Museum’s Hall of Vertebrate Origins
Window Aperture in the David S. and Ruth L. Gottesman Research Library and Learning Center The Reading Room of the David S. and Ruth L. Gottesman Research Library and Learning Center in the new Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation offers stunning views of the building’s third-and fourth-floor bridges and provides visitors with a contemplative space to explore the library’s resources.
Sightlines from Second-Floor Aperture Apertures throughout the Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation create inviting views and offer alluring sightlines to visitors. From this vantage point outside of the Davis Family Butterfly Vivarium on the second floor, visitors can look out over the Kenneth C. Griffin Exploration Atrium, watch others walk across the third-floor bridge to the Invisible Worlds immersive experience, and glimpse the David S. and Ruth L. Gottesman Research Library and Learning Center on the fourth floor.
Third-Floor Aperture Apertures throughout the Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation offer visitors opportunities to take in the building from exciting new vantage points. This round, third-floor aperture gives visitors a view to the Davis Family Butterfly Vivarium on the second floor.
Third-Floor Bridge to the Invisible Worlds Immersive Experience The Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation enhances circulation throughout the entire Museum campus. The Gilder Center’s third and fourth floors are linked by bridges, which offer spectacular views of the Kenneth C. Griffin Atrium as well of Theodore Roosevelt Park and the Upper West Side. This third-floor bridge leads visitors to the entrance of the new Invisible Worlds immersive experience.
Sightlines from Third-Floor Bridge The Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation’s new exhibitions and spaces are connected by two bridges on the third and fourth floors, which offer spectacular views of the Kenneth C. Griffin Atrium as well as of Theodore Roosevelt Park and the Upper West Side. This third-floor bridge leads visitors to the entrance of the new Invisible Worlds immersive experience.
The Invisible Worlds Immersive Experience Invisible Worlds, an immersive and interactive 360-degree science-and-art experience in the new Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation, offers a breathtakingly beautiful, scientifically rigorous, and engaging view into networks of life at all scales. This 12-minute looping experience is powered by scientific data and celebrates the richness of life’s diversity and the basic building blocks of life, including DNA, that connect all living things on our planet. This scene in the Invisible Worlds experience transports visitors to San Diego Bay, California, to experience the nightly commute of plankton, krill, and jellyfish to the sea surface.
The Invisible Worlds Immersive Experience Invisible Worlds, an immersive and interactive 360-degree science-and-art experience in the new Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation, offers a breathtakingly beautiful, scientifically rigorous, engaging view into networks of life at all scales. This 12-minute looping experience is powered by scientific data and celebrates the richness of life’s diversity and the basic building blocks of life, including DNA, that connect all living things on our planet. This scene in the Invisible Worlds experience transitions from a view of connections at the cellular level to those in the root network in the soil of a rainforest.
The Gilder Center at Dusk At dusk, the curved windows of the Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation exude an inviting soft glow. From this vantage point in the renovated section of Theodore Roosevelt Park, the Gilder Center can be viewed in the context of the Museum’s existing campus, visible just beyond the Gilder Center’s gently undulating façade.