American Museum of Natural History Research Library
author: American Museum of Natural History

Rose Center for Earth and Space.
birth: 2000
death: present
Permanent exhibition. Opened February 19, 2000. Located on Floors 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, Section 18. The Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History was built to replace the original Hayden Planetarium, which after sixty years of advances in astrophysics, was considered obsolete (1, 1994/96 p. 6-7). The 207,000 square-foot Rose Center consists of the Hayden Planetarium (giant sphere), which includes the Space Theater and Big Bang Theater; the Harriet and Robert Heilbrunn Cosmic pathway, which leads out from the Big Bang Theater; the Scales of the Universe, which surrounds the sphere; two new permanent exhibition halls: the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Hall of the Universe and the David S. and Ruth L. Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth; the one-acre public Arthur Ross Terrace; and six stories of support facilities with classrooms for educational programs and offices for the Museum's Astrophysics Department (Rose center book p. 64). The Frederick Phineas and Sandra Priest Rose Center for Earth and Space was a massive undertaking that involved many curators, donors, firms, and consultants. Curators and scientists who contributed to the creation of the Rose Center were Michael J. Novacek, the Museum's Provost of Science, Neil deGrasse Tyson, the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium, James Webster, Chair of the Division of Physical Sciences, Edmond Mathez, Curator in the Division of Physical Sciences, Michael Shara, Curator in-Charge of Astrophysics, Mordecai-Mark Mac Low, Assistant Curator of Astrophysics, Charles Liu and Frank Summers, astrophysicists, and James Sweitzer, Director of Special Projects (1, 2000, p. 6-9). Early major support for the Rose Center was provided by Frederick P. and Sandra P. Rose, Richard Gilder, the Charles Hayden Foundation, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman. David S. and Ruth L. Gottesman, Harriet and Robert Heilbrunn, and the Arthur Ross Foundation. The new building was designed by architects James Stewart Polshek and Todd Schleimann of Polshek Partnership. The exhibits were designed by Ralph Applebaum of Applebaum Associates. Landscape designers for the Arthur Ross Terrace were Kathryn Gustafson and Anderson and Ray (1, 1994/96 p. 6-7; 1, 1996/97 p. 6; 1, 1998/99 p. 9; 1, 2000, p. 6-9; 2, 2001, p. 75).
In January 1995, the Museum announced plans to replace the Hayden Planetarium with a new building that would not only answer a need for an update, given the major advances in scientific methods and knowledge of astrophysics and the rapid rate with which they continued to advance, but the new building would also be adaptable to further advancements in the field. Despite opposition over the original Hayden Planetarium's place in cultural memory, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission reported favorably on the demolition (3, 1996). The Rose Center was also central in the debate in both the astrophysics community and the American public over Pluto's demotion from planet to dwarf planet (4, 2009) as the curators chose to group Pluto with the icy bodies in the Kuiper Belt as opposed to a terrestrial or gas giant planet (5, 20010.