New York, .- The Museum of Natural History of New York, which this year is celebrating its 150th anniversary, on Wednesday gave the kick-off to the construction of a new building of about 21,000 square meters which aims to give priority to the scientific education of the new generations.
Called the “Richard Gelder Center for Science, Education and Innovation”, the space will add galleries, study spaces, a theater and a library to the historic and popular center, which receives some 5 million visitors a year.
The management of the institution has insisted on the vital importance of giving priority to the education of young people in the field of science to provide them with the necessary tools in the fight against climate change.
“The scientific research based on evidence carried out by this museum, which improves the public’s understanding of how science works, (…) has never been more important,” the museum president said at the inauguration of the building. Ellen Futter
For its part, the mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, present at the event, noted that “science is being attacked” in clear reference to the policies of the administration of US President Donald Trump, who June 2017 announced that his country was withdrawing from the Paris Agreement to give priority to economic development.
“Science is being attacked, and that is a danger to our nation and our world, it is not a political opinion, but based on facts, so we must focus on science even more if possible,” De Blasio said.
“We are all responsible for saving our world now, and the generation that follows us will have even more responsibility,” added the politician, who has presented himself as the candidate of the Democratic party to the presidential elections of 2020.
The new building will cost a total of 383 million dollars, of which the city of New York has contributed 78, and in addition to giving more space to new educational activities, will connect a total of 10 buildings of the museum to facilitate the movement of its visitors .
In its fight against climate change, the firm that designed it has wanted to give it a sustainable character, so it will be low consumption and will collect water from the rains, while its aesthetic is inspired by the natural processes of the earth.
According to its educational purpose, it will have a multi-storey glass wall called “Core Collections”, which will house some 4 million scientific specimens.
In addition, it will include the first gallery of the museum in the last 50 years to dedicate itself exclusively to insects, and a “Butterfly Nursery”, which will give the opportunity to observe these lepidoptera.
“The museum was named in 1869 by the State of New York an educational institution, and education is the center of our existence,” said the director of the board of the cultural center, Lewis Bernard.
The works, which are expected to be completed in 2021, will begin seven years late, after the museum was confronted with a complaint filed by a community group that was trying to protect Theodore Roosvelt’s adjacent park, and which was rejected on last month of December.
Currently, the New York Museum of Natural History is considered one of the most outstanding scientific, educational and cultural institutions in the world, and has some 200 science experts who study the more than 34 million artifacts and specimens that it houses. , some of which are billions of years old. (EFEUSA)
