March 13, 2025 – Queens, NY – CityWorks, a new interactive exhibit that explores the often invisible inner workings of the built urban environment, will open on May 3, New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) announced today. Housed in a 6,000 square foot gallery, the exhibit was created by a team of NYSCI exhibit developers, researchers and educators over the past five years. Visitors will have the opportunity to explore the intricate systems and engineering that allow cities to function, including how they break, evolve and endure.

CityWorks expands on NYSCI’s commitment to nurturing science, technology, and engineering learning among the next generation of learners and creative thinkers. NYSCI - through partnerships with schools, universities and community partners - empowers future innovators, scientists and leaders of tomorrow. CityWorks will give all visitors the tools they need to be urban and city planners.

“More than eighty percent of Americans live in cities,” said NYSCI President and CEO Lisa J. Gugenheim. “Cities are the heart and pulse of our country - and countries around the globe - and understanding how they work is critically important to how they will function in the future. They rely daily on engineering systems and decisions that are complex in their beauty. CityWorks will invite visitors young and old to explore this world, taking them deep into the built environment and challenging them to engage with the materials and ideas that keep our cities thriving.”

CityWorks reveals the engineering and decision making that allows cities of all sizes, including New York City, to function. Woven through displays that explain how the infrastructure functions are interactive experiences that encourage visitors to explore how natural and built systems are integrated, how people impact the landscape, and how we can rethink cities to address the challenges of climate change in the future.

CityWorks will focus on five different aspects of city infrastructure. Each section of the exhibit includes an explanation on how each system has traditionally functioned, evolved over time as well as what will be potential future challenges each could face over time as cities continue to adapt.

● Transportation

• How it works: subway, bus, sidewalk, and roads – engineering, management and design.
• Future challenges: growing populations, transportation of goods, transit
  efficiency and environmental impact.

● Water and Wastewater

• How it works: NYC watershed and distribution systems, combined sewers, and treatment plant processes.
• Future challenges: system maintenance and repairs, and updates to plan for sewage overflow events with changing climate.

● Sanitation

• How it works: garbage landfill, recycling, compost, e-waste, construction debris, etc.
• Future challenges: explore the implications of our waste streams, and investigate some ways to reconsider our waste management for the future

● Construction and Urban Development

• How it works: how the iconic NYC skyline is built - materials, engineering, and processes.
• Future challenges: updating, maintaining, retrofitting, and demolition, to make buildings more resilient, efficient, and adaptable for our changing needs.

● Integrated Systems

• The final section looks at three simulated city neighborhoods – one residential, one central business hub, and one industrial, coastal area – to reveal how changes in one type of infrastructure have effects on other systems and on the quality of life in the neighborhood as a whole. The interactive exhibit utilizes digital twin technology and real NYC data drawn from open data sources to allow visitors to see how their decisions impact the urban landscape.

Because residents and workers are a city’s most powerful levers for driving change and building a sustainable and more livable future, CityWorks focuses on the workers who design, build andmaintain cities, from engineers and scientists to sandhogs, sanitation and park workers. Exhibit imagery, content and future programming will highlight the roles of people as stewards of a city’s systems. All systems require maintenance and repair and CityWorks frames cities as technical and social systems that must accommodate millions of users and future conditions.

“Growing and evolving cities requires skilled talent that can address today’s challenges and adapt for the future,” continued Gugenheim. “In New York City and across the nation, civil servants and skilled workers are the backbone that keep cities working, moving, and thriving. CityWorks aims to display the critical importance of the development of skilled trades and competencies, as all cities continue to transition from one generation to the next.”

NYSCI’s recent history is itself part of this story. First closed by the pandemic from March 2020 through July 2021, the museum was then shut again in September 2021 after Hurricane Ida flooded the area. CityWorks is NYSCI’s first new, large-scale exhibition since reopening in October 2022.

As befitting a science and technology museum that asks visitors to touch the world around them, CityWorks will be a tactile experience, allowing guests to simulate driving a bus, observe the city from the perspective of a pigeon, load a garbage truck, build a skyscraper, design a park and even see what lies beneath a city’s manhole cover.

The exhibition and a range of related programming will use an interactive approach, coined by NYSCI as “Design, Make, Play,” to integrate CityWorks and science learning into their educational services offerings for schools and the greater community. This includes creating student and youth programs that will focus on topics including engineering, climate change and extreme weather, environmental and city resilience, DNA barcoding and technological investigations into local urban ecosystems.

CityWorks installations will broaden visitors’ perspectives and inspire their curiosity. Within many interactive experiences, visitors will be able to explore the critical role that gravity plays in our access to daily water supplies, by manipulating a model of the aqueduct that brings water from the Catskills to New York City. They will also flush toilets, start the laundry and make it rain to explore how combined sewer systems make urban neighborhoods vulnerable to flooding.

Visitors can also hear from a “sandhog” - a construction worker who works underground or underwater - about what it takes to dig some of the largest water tunnels ever created, and travel underneath the city to explore the intricate interplay of infrastructure and natural systems.Other facets of CityWorks includes discovering the critical role trees play in creating livable neighborhoods and usable parks. Visitors will also investigate the natural conditions and the engineering innovations that make skyscrapers possible, and build a skyscraper of their own that can stand tall and strong.

CityWorks was conceived and developed by the New York Hall of Science. The Science Museum of Minnesota collaborated with NYSCI on the exhibit design and fabricated the exhibition, with critical contributions from BetaNYC, Trivium Interactive, and ShowFab. In addition, the exhibition benefited from the input of a large number of State and City agencies, as well as academic experts and city residents.

Funding for CityWorks was provided by The Freedom Together Foundation, The State of New York, Ravenel B. Curry III, Sara Lee Schupf and the Lubin Family Foundation, The Lily Auchincloss Foundation, and General Motors.

About the New York Hall of Science:

Founded in conjunction with the 1964 World’s Fair, the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) is a local and global leader in providing innovative education, scientific and technological learning experiences. The mission of NYSCI is to nurture generations of passionate learners, critical thinkers and active citizens through an approach called Design, Make, Play. This innovative approach emphasizes open-ended exploration, imaginative learning and personal relevance,resulting in deep engagement and delight in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Media Contact: NYSCIdkc@dkcnews.com