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The dark ages are over.
The New York Hall of Science - for 40 years encased in a funky but dim space resembling an upright tomb - now illuminates its little corner of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park with a $68-million addition that ushers in a new era of enlightenment.
With obtuse angles, a translucent exterior and a design suggesting an airplane hangar built by Pablo Picasso, the hall's new 55,000- square-foot extension opens on Thanksgiving Day, doubling the museum's floor space and vastly expanding its potential. Connected to the hall's original, undulating spire, the new space glows from within and sparkles throughout.
From inside, visitors can see trees, rockets and the upper tier of nearby Shea Stadium.
Museum director Alan Friedman led a recent tour of the space, beaming like a new father who waited 20 years for his progeny to be born.
"I had a notion in my head in 1984 of what a first-class science museum would look like. And it wasn't like that when I got here," Friedman said. "And now I think it is."
Until now, the hall played host to a succession of temporary exhibits that disappeared regardless of popularity. Now, the museum has room to retain an exhibit on the science of sports, which was a hit when...