The American Museum of Natural History Enters Its Modern Stone Age

A daily mix of stories about cities, city life, and our always evolving neighborhoods and skylines. [Curbed]( WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26 architecture review [The American Museum of Natural History Enters Its Modern Stone Age]( The new Gilder Center has folds of pink granite outside, rough shotcrete swoops within. Photo: Iwan Baan The architecture firm Studio Gang grapples with the Earth’s basic elements.[Aqua Tower]( in Chicago ripples like the surface of Lake Michigan. The flame-red-and-smoke-gray[Rescue Company 2]( in Brooklyn serves the fire department. And the[Solar Carve]( office building along the High Line dodges and twists to keep from blocking daylight. Now, the team led by Jeanne Gang has embodied geological forces in the form of the granite-clad, cavelike Gilder Center, the High-Flintstonian west wing of the American Museum of Natural History. It’s a stony portal to a rock hall of fame and a labyrinth of fossils, a gateway to the museum’s explorations of all that’s hidden in the soil. Like the schist outcroppings that rear up a couple of blocks away in Central Park, Gang’s mixture of urban attitude and immemorial forms reminds us that even a megalopolis like ours is just a collection of boxes clinging to a very old boulder. The building is far from faultless, but it is gloriously imperfect, frankly attention-getting, and invigorating in its rejection of high gloss and generic bigness. From now on, all young first-time visitors should enter from Columbus Avenue and have a chance to utter their first of many whoas even before they’ve crossed the threshold. [Continue reading »]( [Exclusive Anniversary Offer:]( Get a limited-edition tote plus save up to 60% on unlimited access to Curbed and everything New York. [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( The Latest [The Artist Making Furniture Out of Felted Concrete “People think the fuzziness is cute. Or they’re a little weirded out by it,” says Susannah Weaver.]( By Diana Budds [The Small Electric Car Is an Endangered Species in America GM is killing the Chevy Bolt to go all-in on supersized EVs.]( By Alissa Walker [Timothée Chalamet and Martin Scorsese Rode the Subway The MTA is back! Period.]( By Clio Chang [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( [Read More From Curbed]( Introducing The City Desk, a weekly newsletter about New York. [Sign up to get it every Thursday](. [GET THE NEWSLETTER]( [logo]( [facebook logo]( [instagram logo]( [twitter logo]( [unsubscribe](link.nymag.com/manage/588/optout-curbed?email={EMAIL}&hash=6c53b63a8e3fad70ad4ef13004527437¶m=curbed) | [privacy notice]( | [update preferences]( This email was sent to {EMAIL}. Was this email forwarded to you? [Sign up now]( to get this newsletter in your inbox. [View this email in your browser.]( You received this email because you have a subscription to New York. Reach the right online audience with us For advertising information on email newsletters, please contact AdOps@nymag.com Vox Media, LLC 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, 12th Floor Washington, DC 20036 Copyright © 2023, All rights reserved