New York science academy goes modern

After more than 55 years in the historic, but cramped, Woolworth Mansion on East 63rd Street in Manhattan, the New York Academy of Sciences moved in September to the glass-encased 40th floor of 7 World Trade Center, the first building to rise on the site of the September 11 terrorist attacks. The 32-room Woolworth Mansion (left), donated to the academy by Norman Woolworth in 1949, allowed the science organization to relocate out of a few rooms loaned to it by the American Museum of Natural History. But in recent years, the mansion, with a main room that held only 90 people, had proved too small to allow the academy to conduct large programs, said NYAS president Ellis Rubinstein. The new headquarters in the 7 WTC building (right) has a 300-person auditorium and will allow the 26 000-member academy to present programs to a broader audience, Rubinstein said. The new building is on the site of the last building to fall in the 2001 terrorist attacks. “We’ve rocketed into the future,” he said, “and we’re making a statement that we care about New York. We feel a little patriotic.”