Ralph Appelbaum Associates

The Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation is a 230,000-square-foot project (190,000 square feet of new construction, 40,000 square feet of renovated space) at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. RAA began work in 2014 as the lead exhibit designer on the project through to its opening, working in close collaboration with the Museum’s Exhibition and Education departments.

The RAA team focused on representing the exhibit items to stay true to its character found in nature. The Susan and Peter J. Solomon Family Insectarium displays live insects and exhibits across 5,000 square feet.

Highlights include live insect tanks, pinned insects, dioramas, insect models, a sound gallery, a 1:20 scale suspended resin sculpted bee hive with integrated AV experiences, and a massive leafcutter ant display. RAA designed the ribbed finished ceiling, which speaks to the geometry of insect nests.

The 2,500 square foot Davis Family Butterfly Vivarium highlights the activities of over 80 live butterfly species. The space was designed to reflect a natural garden of plants and flowers that are butterfly appropriate. The butterflies have associated design graphic identification cards along with graphic interpretive panels delivering information on these insects. There is also a dedicated moth tank and pupae tank and butterfly feeders that were custom designed along with the garden grow light lamp shades. Additionally, the space was designed to be conditioned to provide temperature and humidity conditions to allow the butterflies to survive and thrive.

The Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. Collections Core is a vertical feature with 2,500 square feet of floor-to-ceiling collections displays across three floors, encompassing the Macaulay Family Foundation Galleries on the first and second floors. The double-sided cases allow visitors to see through into the collections core storage itself and view the scientists at work. Integrated within the design are 100-inch digital touch screens and a flexible shelving and mounting system to adapt to the collections on display.

The Yurman Family Crystalline Pass features a 19-foot-long vein of crystal quartz sourced from a mine in Arkansas. The design recreated the vein as found in nature and embedded this display behind glass into the architectural wall.