The Intrepid Museum is planning to build a 75,000 square foot Exhibit Hall on 12th Avenue to house the space shuttle Enterprise.
Last April, NASA chose the Intrepid Museum as the future home for the space shuttle Enterprise and museum officials want to build a grand annex to house the craft, along with a beefed-up space and science program. What a tremendous cultural and educational boon for the city. We’d finally have our own premier space-and-science center. How cool is that?
On the drawing board: a spectacular 75,000-square-foot glass structure on what is now a parking lot across 12th Avenue, near the museum’s home aboard USS Intrepid -- the storied World War II-era aircraft carrier docked at Pier 86 near West 46th Street. The shuttle would be the main attraction, but the building would also offer other exhibits, interactive displays, classrooms and labs for educational programs, a rooftop cafe and other amenities.
There’d be a plethora of activities: films, talks and other events focusing on NASA, space exploration, flight, their history and the science behind them -- presented with state-of-the-art technology. Cool indeed.
True, the museum already has an admirable section devoted to space (its full name is the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum Complex). But the current program is nothing next to what’s on tap when the new facility opens in 2014, featuring a real space shuttle (actually, Enterprise was a prototype, but a key part of the shuttle program).
With the other retired shuttles based elsewhere in the country, the Intrepid will instantly become the preeminent space museum in the entire Northeast. Cooler still. That, by the way, means incalculable benefits for New York -- the coolest part of all.
The most exciting perk: its impact on education. The idea is to turn on young minds not only to space, but to what educrats refer to as the STEM sector: Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Galvanizing generations of superstars in those fields is vital not only to New York, but America.
There’d be formal educational programs and link-ups with area schools. Let’s be honest: What kind of stuffy schoolhouse lecture can capture a kid’s imagination like a real, live space shuttle? Kids will be tackling Bernoulli’s Principle and the Cold War space race without even realizing it.
Other goodies? The center would fill a gap in the city’s cultural offerings, boosting the Big Apple’s image and attractiveness as a tourist destination. The jolt to economic activity in that neighborhood and beyond would be hefty: Early estimates cite hundreds of new jobs, more than $100 million in new business and $6 million in tax revenue to start, with possibly more later.
Why would such a no-brainer plan face an uphill battle? For starters, money. Officials need $85 million -- about $45 million from government and $40 million from private donors. That won’t be easy. Plus, the state, which owns the parking lot, has to agree to hand it over. And the city needs to OK zoning changes.
Meanwhile, cities that lost out on shuttles during NASA’s competition (Houston, Seattle and Dayton, for example) see the new plans as grounds to reopen the contest. Officials in Ohio, Texas and Washington have called on NASA to review its decision. This week, a petition got the required 5,000 signatures needed to trigger an official review.
“New York, which received the decommissioned Enterprise space shuttle under the premise that it would house it in the Intrepid ... now plans to build a separate museum for the Enterprise,” the petition whines. Those arguments, of course, are ridiculous. If the Intrepid’s new plans weren’t superior to what was originally envisioned, the museum wouldn’t be pursuing them.
It would be a tragedy of galactic proportions should New York miss this rare chance for top-rate space museum. Local officials should move heaven and earth to see the plan to fruition. But New Yorkers themselves would be wise to take a stand, too, demanding action from the pols -- and perhaps even donating a few bucks. The rewards could be ... out of this world.