“Jeanne Gang’s “Hive”-Inspired Architecture Takes Visitors on a Journey Underground at the Museum of Natural History’s New Wing”

Is it the famous Antelope Canyon in Arizona, with its limestone curves streaked by the winds? An ice cave sculpted by water in Iceland? The stone arches of Utah? Or even a giant hive with cells agglomerated by bees? Entering the Richard-Gilder Center for Science, Education and Innovation, the new wing of the Museum of Natural History in New York, on the outskirts of Central Park, the visitor enters the inner and underground world of Chicago architect Jeanne Gang. Immediately, he recognizes the talent of M.^me Gang, 59, known for her skyscrapers with sea waves, such as the Aqua Tower, on the shores of Lake Michigan.

The specificity of the project: “The Journey Begins Within”, says Jeanne Gang. A technical constraint in line with the museum project, to relate the life of insects, and this underground world, built like a hive or an anthill. Technical constraint, because it was necessary to build, or even embed the new wing, between the unfinished main building of Victorian Gothic style, built at the end of the 19th^e century, and the more modern entrance which gives access to the planetarium, and especially astride the underground warehouses. It was necessary “reuse the existing structure”according to Jeanne Gang, instead of building from scratch, which is basically easier.

Arches and cells of reinforced concrete, with their raw appearance and shapes reminiscent of Gaudi, enabled Jeanne Gang to fill this void to create the Richard-Gilder Center of the museum, named after its patron, a philanthropic financier who died in 2020. An interminable $465 million project, launched in 2014, subject to multiple disputes from local residents: construction only really started in 2019, when the inauguration should have taken place that year for the 150 years of the institution. Finally, here is the wing finally open to the public from Thursday, May 4th.

Taste considered outdated and colonial

The Richard-Gilder Center must also serve as an entrance and facilitate circulation in the museum, a terrible labyrinth made up of dead ends where the visitor constantly gets lost. The Natural History Museum, very popular with French tourists, enjoyed renewed fame with the release in 2006 of Shawn Levy’s film, Night at the Museum. He told how all the exhibits – animals, dinosaurs, miniatures – came to life, and how the hero, a night watchman, managed to restore order, helped by Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), adventurous president of the United States and museum icon.

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