This Time It's Personal

by Jessica Kitchin   
Posted December 20, 2007

Reopened after a $109 million expansion, Liberty Science Center focuses on people’s impact on the environment—and each other.

A big, blue nose blows a wet, compressed-air “sneeze” on startled passersby. The mist is harmlesss H2O, but the 100-mph velocity at which it’s expelled is the real deal—typical of the force of an actual human sneeze. If the sneezer is under the weather, hordes of lucky germs get catapulted into the air to infect other bipeds. Adults as well as children walk away from this exhibit with a new appreciation for tissues—or just a covering hand.

Liberty Science Center is back, again making everything from physics to physiology fun. After a 22-month, $109 million expansion and renovation, the center is more dynamic than ever.

The building still occupies its familiar spot in Liberty State Park in Jersey City, but the 100,000-square-foot addition not only boosted usable space by 50 percent, it also relocated the entrance so that LSC has a new street address. The interior has been so thoroughly transformed that it’s hard to recall how the old center fit into the space.

One recognizable friend is the dome of the IMAX Theater, still creating its 3-D wizardry. Forty old favorites, including the rock wall and the reaction timer, are gathered into the new “Wonder Why” exhibition.

Beyond the eight new major exhibitions, the LSC’s very outlook is new. “What we have done is reimagined the greater possibility of what a science center can be,” says  Emlyn Koster, LSC’s president and CEO. “We selected a range of themes that directly relate to living, learning, working in, and caring for the New York City region, putting it all in a world context.”

In that spirit, the new “Skyscraper! Achievement and Impact,” the largest exhibition and the first visitors see on entering, explains structural engineering and lets visitors see the effects of wind on tall buildings. They can strap on a safety harness and  walk along a narrow I-beam eighteen feet above the floor. “Skyscraper!” also includes a grotesquely twisted beam retrieved from Ground Zero.

“Our Hudson Home” explores the unseen life of the river that licks the shore just a few hundred yards away. Upstairs, “Eat and Be Eaten,” stocked with live animals, explains how creatures track and kill prey or use camouflage, speed, protective shells, or other means to avoid becoming dinner. “Communication” explains how people have exchanged ideas, whether by Incan quipu (knotted fabric), Braille, or digital text messages.

In the first six weeks after reopening in July, the LSC had 160,000 visitors—a 60 percent increase over the same period pre-renovation. To draw an older crowd (and even couples on dates), summer hours were extended, and more of the exhibits are geared toward adults. “We live in a world where all ages and stages of learning, from preschool to seniors, need to have access [to science],” Koster says.