You wouldn’t think the American Museum of Natural History could fit any more science into its already massive campus on the Upper West Side. But the new Gilder Center for Science, Education and Innovation does just that.

Opening to the public on May 4, the massive $465 million project has been in the works for nearly a decade.

It was developed and constructed during the tenure of former museum president Ellen Futter. She says the facility shows off everything a museum does.

What You Need To Know

  • The Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education and Innovation opens May 4 at the American Museum of Natural History

  • It's a 230,000-square-foot, $465 million expansion project that makes 33 connections among 10 museum buildings

  • It also establishes a new entrance on the museum's west side at Columbus Avenue and West 79th Street

  • Highlights include an insectarium with a giant display of Leafcutter Ants, a vivarium with 1,000 free-flying butterflies and a multi-level Collections Core with a number of items from the museum's collections

“You can see the science, you can see the collections, you obviously see exhibitions, and the unbelievably wonderful really thrilling classrooms,” Futter said.

Highlights include the five-story Griffin Exploration atrium and the Solomon Family Insectarium with plenty of live insects, including a giant ant display with leaf-cutter ants doing their thing. There’s also a huge model of a beehive.

Upstairs, up to 1,000 butterflies fly free around the Davis Family Vivarium. The project also helps improve the flow of visitors throughout the museum, cutting out dead ends.

“What this does is it connects in over 30 places to the existing museum campus so that people can flow through, and they don’t have to backtrack and see the same thing they saw already,” said Jeanne Gang, founding principal and partner of Studio Gang, the architect for the project.

Other features include Invisible Worlds, an immersive science and art experience, a research library and learning center and the Collections Core, which has an extensive selection of all of the fossils and specimens in the museum’s collections.

It’s almost like a new museum, connected to the one New Yorkers and the world have known for more than 150 years. So the timing for Sean Decatur to start his job as the new president of the museum couldn’t be better.

“This building is just opening up so many new possibilities and areas of excitement as we move forward,” Decatur said.