Referred to as “Manhattanhenge,” it looks like a giant fossil, curving and bleached, that has merged with the landscape to become part of a geological formation. Inside, there is a sense of prehistoric caves, a world created within a rock face. The new Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation, designed by the architects Studio Gang, is something to behold. The Center will house a five-story core that holds collections vertically. It also contains the Susan and Peter J. Solomon Family Insectarium, a gallery devoted to insects (and containing live as well as pinned specimens); a year-round Butterfly Vivarium; the Invisible World immersive science-and-art experience; and 18 new classrooms. —Laura Jacobs