The Rose Center for Earth and Space is a part of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The Center's complete name is The Frederick Phineas and Sandra Priest Rose Center for Earth and Space. The main entrance is located on the northern side of the museum on 81st Street near Central Park West in Manhattan's Upper West Side. Completed in 2000, it includes the Hayden Planetarium, which was originally opened in 1935. Neil deGrasse Tyson is its first and, to date, only director.
History
The center is an extensive reworking of the former Hayden Planetarium, whose first projector, dedicated in 1935, had 2 successors previous to the current one. The original Hayden Planetarium was founded in 1933 with a donation by banker and philanthropist Charles Hayden of Hayden, Stone & Co. It was designed by architects Trowbridge & Livingston and opened in 1935. Its construction was funded by a $650,000 loan from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and a $150,000 donation from Charles Hayden. Its mission was to give the public "a more lively and sincere appreciation of the magnitude of the universe... and for the wonderful things which are daily occurring in the universe." Joseph M. Chamberlain, hired as an assistant curator in 1952, became Chairman of the Planetarium in 1956. In 1960, a Zeiss Mark IV projector was installed, followed by a Zeiss Mark VI projector and new seats in 1993. In January 1997, the original Hayden Planetarium was closed and demolished. In August 1999, a new, customized Zeiss Mark IX projector was installed, accompanied by a digital dome projection system that provides a 3-D visualization of the universe based on images generated in real time by a Silicon Graphics supercomputer. Before the building opened, a black tie fundraiser was held at the nearly finished museum to celebrate the millennium on December 31, 1999. Philippe Petit, best known for his 1974 tightrope walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, and Eartha Kitt performed at the millennium event. On February 19, 2000, the $210 million Frederick Phineas and Sandra Priest Rose Center for Earth and Space, containing the new Hayden Planetarium, opened to the public. The Rose Center was designed by James Polshek and Todd H. Schliemann of Polshek Partnership Architects (now Ennead Architects) with the exhibition design by Ralph Appelbaum Associates. The Museum's garden was designed by Seattle based landscape architecture firm Gustafson, Guthrie, Nichol. Tom Hanks provided the voice-over for the first planetarium show during the opening of the new Rose Center for Earth & Space in the Hayden Planetarium in 2000. Since then such celebrities as Whoopi Goldberg, Robert Redford, Harrison Ford, Liam Neeson and Maya Angelou have been featured. On December 31, 2001, Peter Jennings hosted ABC 2002 live from the Rose Center. The program was a more "reflective" counterpart to Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve created in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
Design
Designed by Polshek and Todd Schliemann, the building consists of a six-story glass cube that encloses the illuminated Hayden Sphere, 87-foot (27 m) high, which, while appearing to float, is actually supported by truss work. Polshek has referred to this work as a "cosmic cathedral". The Rose Center and its adjacent plaza are both located at the north face of the Museum. In addition to the Hayden Planetarium it encloses 333,500 square feet (30,980 m2) of floor space for research, education, and exhibition. Also located in the facility is the Department of Astrophysics, the newest academic research department in the Museum. The planetarium's original magazine, The Sky, has merged with the The Telescope to become the leading astronomy magazine Sky & Telescope. Polshek designed the 1,800-square-foot (170 m2) Weston Pavilion that presents a transparent 43-foot (13 m), "water white", glass wall standing along the Museum's west facade. The Pavilion, a companion piece to the Rose Center, provides more exhibition space for astronomically-related objects and a new public entry way to the Museum.
Exclusion of Pluto as a planet The planetarium's exhibits highlight the human connection to the cosmos while emphasizing the scale and properties of the observable universe itself. Notably, the new Rose Center opened on February 19, 2000, with a model depicting only eight planets, excluding Pluto, as there was no scientific consensus at the time of whether Pluto is a planet, or not; where much of the American public—and some with much affection, i.e., schoolchildren and their teachers and parents—thought of Pluto as the ninth planet. Almost a year later, January 22, 2001, The New York Times reported the news of the Center's action on its front page, which led directly to much media attention and public controversy.
Hayden Planetarium and Big Bang Theater
The new Hayden Planetarium (often called "The Hayden Sphere" or "The Great Sphere") and the original Big Bang Theater are the two main attractions within the Rose Center. The original Hayden Planetarium of 1933 was established by the State of New York with start-up funding from philanthropist Charles Hayden. The top half of the Hayden Sphere houses the Star Theater, which uses a high-resolution fulldome video projector to present "space shows" based on scientific visualization of current astrophysical data; and a customized Zeiss Star Projector system that accurately replicates a typical night sky as seen from Earth. The Hayden Planetarium offers a number of public presentations and prerecorded shows. The Big Bang Theater occupies the bottom half of the Hayden Sphere. It typically opens a public program by presenting a video that depicts the birth of the universe, with narration by Liam Neeson and utilizing a 36 feet (11 m) diameter screen standing over an 8-foot-deep (2.4 m) bowl. The Big Bang Theater also serves to introduce visitors to the Heilbrun Cosmic Pathway, a spiral walkway that wraps around the sphere, connecting the first and second floors of the Rose Center. It provides a timeline history of the universe from the Big Bang to the present day. The Heilbrun Cosmic Pathway is one of the most popular exhibits in the Rose Center.
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