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Virtually every museum cordons off its exhibits and stations security guards throughout the building to ensure nobody gets too close to displays. But at the Hall of Science in Flushing, visitors are urged to touch, feel and manipulate every item in sight.
"It's a hands-on museum," said Alan J. Friedman, the museum's executive director. "We encourage the visitors to be a part of the museum."
Like the exploratorium in San Francisco and the Museum of Science and Technology in Chicago, the Hall of Science in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park (entrance at 111th Street and 48th Avenue) is an experiential museum that makes the visitor part of the display. More than 250,000 people visit the Hall of Science every year, which may not be breathtaking at first glance. But Friedman points out that the attendance is significant considering the museum's size.
"We actually have one of the most densely visited museums in the country," Friedman said. "We have eight-point-five visitors per square foot per year."
The well-visited Hall of Science has not always enjoyed success. It was opened in 1966 with great optimism, and former World's Fair head and Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority leader Robert Moses announced that the Hall would soon grow to compete with the great Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
But Moses' hyberbole concerning Queens' first museum faded, and by the late 1960s and early 1970s, funding earmarked for the Hall was being redirected to capital projects such as the renovation of Yankee Stadium.
The Hall of Science remained much as it had begun: a leftover exhibit from...