Hayden Planetarium - History

History

1935 The Hayden Planetarium, designed by architects Trowbridge & Livingston, opens, after its construction is funded by a $650,000 loan from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and a $150,000 donation from banker Charles Hayden of Hayden, Stone & Co. Its mission was to give the public "a more lively and sincere appreciation of the magnitude of the universe... and for the wonderful things which are daily occurring in the universe."
1956 Joseph M. Chamberlain, hired as an assistant curator in 1952, becomes Chairman of the Planetarium.
1960 A Zeiss Mark IV projector is installed.
1973 A Zeiss Mark VI projector and new seats are installed.
1979 The planetarium appears as a backdrop for scenes in the film Manhattan. Woody Allen and Diane Keaton play characters who walk around within the planetarium after escaping from a sudden downburst of rain.
1997 The original Hayden Planetarium is closed and demolished in January.
1999 A new, customized Zeiss Mark IX projector is installed in August. It is accompanied by a digital dome projection system that provides a 3-D visualization of the universe based on images generated in real time by a Silicon Graphics supercomputer.
2000 On February 19, the Rose Center for Earth and Space, designed by James Polshek and containing the new Hayden Planetarium, opens to the public.

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