EXPANSION PLAN
OUR HISTORY
Since opening the new campus in December 2004, Kidspace Children’s Museum has welcomed nearly 1,000,000 visitors. The only children’s museum in Los Angeles County, Kidspace is recognized internationally for its outdoor learning environment, innovative programs and holistic approach to education and play. Kidspace began in 1978 as a temporary installation created by a group of Pasadena parents who wanted a place where their children could experience art and science in an informal, age-appropriate setting. Their goal was to introduce the children’s museum concept to the community. Partnering with California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Art Center College of Design, volunteers created and presented a prototypical interactive exhibit called “Making Senses.” The installation ran for six weeks on the Caltech campus and attracted thousands of families. Its popularity confirmed the community’s interest, and in 1979, Kidspace: A Participatory Museum opened in a Rose Parade staging warehouse. Working with the City of Pasadena, the Kidspace Board of Directors secured a facility in 1981 at the vacant McKinley School gymnasium on El Molino Avenue. By the mid-1990s, Kidspace had established an active donor and membership base, and with more than 70,000 visitors annually, it had outgrown its home. Board and staff members envisioned a permanent home with both indoor and outdoor capacity. In 1998, the Board secured a 50-year lease for a space near the Rose Bowl in Brookside Park. The current 3.4 acre campus resides in the historic Fannie Morrison Horticultural Center built in 1936, which includes three greenhouse structures, a courtyard, and a garden. A master plan for the site was developed and in 2003 construction began on Phase One, which included renovation of the greenhouses to create an entry pavilion, early childhood center, administrative offices, a 5,000 square foot natural sciences pavilion and, unlike any other children’s museum in the world, 2.2 acres of fully interactive gardens.
OUR VISION
WE ARE CONTINUING TO BUILD A VIBRANT, SUSTAINABLE OASIS FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES THAT FOSTERS COMMUNITY AND CHAMPIONS LEARNING THROUGH PLAY Kidspace is a social and learning center for children and families that is safe, age-appropriate and fun. The Kidspace experience is built on the understanding that, for children, learning and play are one. Through play, children learn to communicate with the world, become critical thinkers, develop bonds with others and acquire essential social and emotional skills. Presenting the arts, sciences and humanities in an informal, age-appropriate setting, Kidspace Children’s Museum provides a matchless venue for engaging the public, young and old, with the arts, humanities, the processes of science and their relevance in our lives. Play and experimentation are the perfect conduits for expressing the drama and creativity that underlie scientific discovery. By emphasizing this dynamism, Kidspace’s new physical and applied science exhibits and multipurpose spaces will complement the outdoor campus and existing natural science exhibits, giving children and families a place where they can experience the interrelatedness of art, science and culture. In so doing, Kidspace can play an active role in encouraging an engaged citizenry that can contribute to the community and make informed decisions about the world we all share.
PROJECT OBJECTIVE
COMPLETE PHASE TWO OF A STRATEGIC PLAN BY GROWING THE MUSEUM’S INDOOR CAPACITY AND CREATING A FULLY REALIZED AND SUSTAINABLE INSTITUTION With only 5,000 square feet of exhibit space and a 500 square foot early childhood center for pre-schoolers, Kidspace relies on its outdoor courtyards and gardens for daily programs, school groups and special events. Additional indoor space is needed to house exhibitry and program spaces and to accommodate visitor facilities. Today, the Museum’s core audience is children ages 4 to 7. Phase Two of the master plan will give the museum the facilities it needs to accommodate its youngest visitors as well as expand its audience to tweens and teens. The centerpiece of the plan is a 23,000 square foot addition. The new pavilion will house interactive exhibitry focused on the physical and applied sciences, an art studio and media lab. Like the Museum’s current natural sciences exhibits, the new pavilion’s offerings will allow students and teachers to experiment, tinker and work together in a way that sparks interests, builds skills and increases learning. Renovations are also planned for the Museum’s existing buildings. Additions will include a Mulit-Purpose Theater and Traveling Exhibit space and a much-expanded Early Childhood Learning Center. Three flexible rooms will occupy the West Pavilion providing indoor space for school groups, workshops, parenting classes and afterschool programs.
CAMPUS MASTER PLAN
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The expansion project will weave together new and existing areas of the Kidspace property into an exciting and cohesive campus. New and existing buildings will be fully integrated with the outdoor gardens and terraces to create a vibrant setting where kids and families can experience learning through play. A new and inviting pathway will entice visitors and lead them from the parking area to a new entry point just east of the South Pavilion.
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LEGEND 1 Kidspace Pathway
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2 Welcome Plaza and Ticket Pavilion 3 East Pavilion
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4 Courtyard Pavilion
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CafĂŠ and Museum Store 5 Roberts Pavilion 6 West Pavilion 7 Main Courtyard 8 South Pavilion
BUILDING AND RENOVATION PLAN
West Pavilion
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South Pavilion
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Roberts Pavilion
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EXISTING
Circulation Exhibits
Traveling Exhibits Facilities and Storage Multi-Purpose Classrooms
Ticket Pavilion Museum Store CafĂŠ Early Childhood Learning Center
MAIN LEVEL
New Building Program The new building will be composed of two structures: a Courtyard Pavilion housing CafĂŠ and Museum Store and the East Pavilion housing exhibit space. This layout will frame the historic courtyard while creating a new entry plaza. Exhibit spaces, visitor amenities, and other indoor and outdoor activity areas will be easily accessible on the courtyard and garden levels, with the administration offices on a mezzanine above. This will improve overall site circulation, provide flexibility of programming, and enliven the outdoor spaces.
Staff Restrooms Activity Rooms Exhibits
Administration Offices Existing Space
Circulation
LOWER LEVEL
MEZZANINE LEVEL
ARRIVING AT THE NEW ENTRY PLAZA
LOOKING NORTH FROM THE SOUTH LAWN
NEW BUILDING VISITORS WILL ARRIVE AT THE NEW ENTRY PLAZA, WHICH WILL BE FRAMED BY THE NEW EXHIBIT PAVILION As a backdrop to the main entry, the new building will be visible to approaching visitors. With a contemporary façade in glass, stone, wood, and other natural materials, the new building’s image will reflect a harmonious relationship with the natural and historic context of the site, while conveying the excitement of the exhibits within.
AERIAL VIEW
NEW BUILDING THE NEW BUILDING IS SCALED TO BE COMPATIBLE WITH THE EXISTING HISTORIC STRUCTURES The larger volume, conceived as an extension of the adjacent bluff, will be a building covered in green: living walls, green screens, and an eco roof. The pavilion to the west will have a wood-gabled roof, as a poetic nod to the historic Fannie Morrison Horticultural buildings. With walls of glass, this structure will be very transparent, maintaining great visibility between the exhibit pavilion and the courtyard. Large glass doors will open in good weather, allowing the activity of the cafĂŠ to spill out onto the outdoor areas.
THE CAFÉ AND THE COURTYARD PAVILION
LOOKING EAST FROM THE COURTYARD TOWARDS THE NEW EXHIBIT PAVILION ENTRY
LOOKING SOUTH AT CAFÉ PAVILION
NEW BUILDING THE COURTYARD PAVILION WILL GIVE ACCESS AND VISIBILITY TO THE MUSEUM STORE AND CAFÉ The Café and Museum Store will be near the entrances to the new exhibit pavilion along the overall visitor circulation route, with the Museum Store facing the arrival plaza to the south. The outdoor spaces created between the courtyard pavilion, the existing buildings, and the new exhibit pavilion will vary in shape and size, lending a village-like feel to the campus.
PLANNED EXHIBITS
PHYSICAL AND APPLIED SCIENCES; ART AND TECHNOLOGY New exhibits will feature experiences in the physical and applied sciences, including Newtonian physics, math, and technology. A focus on basic principles and more in-depth applications will give young visitors a toolkit of knowledge and skills that they can use to understand and create in both the museum and in our ever-changing world. The entry exhibit area will be designed to provide an intuitive understanding of the basic workings of physical science: the macro-scale forces and principles of physics that govern the universe. Through experimentation and play, children will discover how these principles operate and how to use them in the man-made world. As visitors move further and further into the exhibits, through Forces at Play, Move It, and the Connect exhibit areas, they will encounter increasingly challenging opportunities to apply basic science principles; they will be able to accomplish an exciting array of tasks that range from high-tech communication, to transportation, to the generation and uses of alternative energies. Visitors can opt to experience the space as an open-ended, selfguided exploration, or they can take part in facilitated programs scheduled throughout the day and led by museum educators and docents.
PLANNED EXHIBITS
Forces at Play FORCES AT PLAY WILL BE A DYNAMIC AND LIGHTHEARTED INTRODUCTION TO THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE, INCLUDING THE CORE PRINCIPLES OF NEWTONIAN PHYSICS THAT GOVERN MOTION AND ENERGY Here, the basic foundations of physical science will be explored. Visitors will encounter the concepts of potential and kinetic energy, energy transfer, forces, and mechanical advantage by putting them to work in engaging and highly intuitive ways. These experiences will spark curiosity while providing a toolbox of scientific principles from which young visitors can draw upon as they move on to the challenges in the Move It and Connect exhibit areas.
PLANNED EXHIBITS
Move It MOVE IT WILL PRESENT VISITORS WITH A DYNAMIC ARRAY OF OPPORTUNITIES TO APPLY SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES RELATED TO ENERGY, INERTIA, GRAVITY, FRICTION AND AIR PRESSURE Challenges here will focus on making things move and act in useful and entertaining ways. Whether designing a faster landsailer, or devising a room-sized contraption to knock over the first element in a visitor-made domino chase, or activating a funny tower of horns and lights, children will be encouraged to combine basic science principles with their own imaginations. In the process, they will discover the potent mix of science and creativity that underlies everything in the man-made world of motion.
PLANNED EXHIBITS
Connect CONNECT WILL INVITE VISITORS TO TOUCH, TINKER, EXPLORE, SPY, AND ENGAGE WITH EACH OTHER USING THE TECHNOLOGIES AT THEIR FINGERTIPS In the Connect exhibit, visitors will interact with the science and technology that allows people to communicate with the world and beyond. Parabolic sound dishes, Laser Spy devices, fiber-optic arrays, and computer stations will allow visitors to see, hear, and communicate in the museum. Robots, high-tech code-breaking, experiments with infrared light, and other lab stations, will create a multi-layered experience that expands visitors’ understanding of the central role played by science and technology in our information-rich world.
ACTIVITY AREAS
Media Lab THIS MULTIMEDIA TECHNOLOGY WORKSHOP WILL BE DESIGNED TO COMPLEMENT HANDS-ON EXPERIENCES THROUGHOUT THE MUSEUM Loaded with computer pods, work tables, and a broadcast and audio recording studio, the Media Lab will feature applications for young learners, as well as tweens and teens. A critical resource for educators who lack the expertise or resources to foster technological literacy, the Media Lab will be a place where kids can express what they have learned elsewhere at Kidspace, encouraging them to capture, create, store, and share information and ideas.
ACTIVITY AREAS
Art and Design Studio THE ART AND DESIGN STUDIO WILL FEATURE THE PROCESS OF SELF-EXPRESSION THROUGH TACTILE, HANDMADE MEDIUMS, INCLUDING PAINTING, DRAWING, PRINT-MAKING, MIXED-MEDIA, FIBER ARTS AND CLAY The space will be streamlined and flexible with multipurpose workstations, seating, ample storage, and clean-up areas. This flexibility will allow staff to rotate and refresh activities and keep the experience new for returning visitors, especially the tweens that will be attracted to this very sensory, highly social space where the process of creativity can flourish.
EXISTING MAIN ENTRANCE AT THE SOUTH PAVILION
VIEW FROM GARDENS TOWARDS ROBERTS PAVILION
EVOLVING CAMPUS THE HISTORIC WEST AND SOUTH PAVILIONS WILL BE RENOVATED TO HOUSE NEW PROGRAMS The renovated pavilions will include a Multi-Purpose Theater and Traveling Exhibit space, Flexible Classrooms, and an expanded Early Childhood Learning Center for children four and under.
VIEW OF MULTI-PURPOSE ROOM 1
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Multi-Purpose Theater and Traveling Exhibits 1 The Multi-Purpose Theater and Traveling Exhibits space will complement the outdoor amphitheater, providing a location for changing performing arts programming, as well as interactive traveling exhibits. A flexible space for performances, demonstrations, speaker’s series, and traveling exhibits, the continually changing programs in this new space will offer children and adults a steady stream of engaging programming from artists, scientists, and education professionals. The space will also feature exhibits from children’s museums and science centers around the globe.
Early Childhood Learning Center 2 The small early childhood room will be replaced by a larger, segmented space for children ages four and under. A lively environment paralleling the Museum’s theme of the interconnectedness of art, science and humanities, the new Early Childhood Learning Center will feature lighting, color, forms, and surfaces to make spaces that stimulate young minds and bodies. Activities will focus on independent development of fine and gross motor skills, balance, coordination, classification and movement. Group play spaces and cooperative activities will encourage emotional, social and verbal development. Art and reading nooks will facilitate creativity and storytelling to build children’s preliteracy skills.
OUR TRANSFORMATION Multi-Purpose Classrooms The Multi-Purpose rooms will increase the Museum’s programmatic capacity by offering visitors opportunities to participate in mediated experiences that complement exhibits and outdoor learning environments. The three multi-purpose rooms will serve as highly flexible spaces for school group visits, seasonal camps, weekend workshops, parenting classes, and other programs, allowing the education staff to develop programs to suit the Museum’s many audiences in the community. The rooms will include moveable seating and tables that accommodate multiple ages, storage areas for program supplies and sinks.
VIEW OF MULTI-PURPOSE ROOM
SUSTAINABLE STRATEGIES KIDSPACE IS COMMITTED TO SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES The expansion and renovation project will set a precedent for green design within the community, with the added goal of teaching by example and inspiring a sense of stewardship for our natural and man-made world. New buildings will incorporate creative solutions and the latest technologies to reduce their impact on the environment: reducing energy consumption, harvesting power on site, using materials containing the least possible amount of harmful chemicals, and conserving water. Existing structures will be upgraded to improve their indoor environment while reducing their energy and water demand. The strategies will be comprehensive, but the focus will be on ample daylighting, passive ventilation, and intense solar shading to reduce cooling and power loads.
PASSIVE TEMPERATURE CONTROL
HIGH PERFORMANCE BUILDING ENVELOPE
Building openings will take advantage of the Arroyo micro-climate temperature swing.
The building orientation, ventilation, and envelope design will work together to balance heat gain.
INTEGRATED BUILDING SYSTEMS
NATURAL DAYLIGHTING AND VIEWS
Simplified building systems are integral to each other, creating unique efficiencies.
Filtering direct sunlight and strategic glass placement will enhance views while providing comfort.
WATER-USE REDUCTION
BUILDING MONITORING SYSTEM
Efficient plumbing fixtures and waterless urinals will conserve water for non-potable applications.
Data on the various uses of the building will be displayed on flat screen monitors.
MATERIAL RESOURCES
NATIVE LOW-WATER LANDSCAPING
Local, renewable, and recycled building materials will be used in the construction.
Local plant species will minimize the need for maintenance and create a natural habitat.
ON-SITE RENEWABLE ENERGY: SOLAR
SITE LIGHTING
Photovoltaics with a thermal solar system will reduce reliance on the electrical grid.
Efficient site lighting will reduce night sky light pollution.
GREEN ROOFS
RAINWATER HARVESTING
Roof gardens will mitigate the building temperature and integrate in the building and landscape.
Rainwater will be captured and re-used with mechanical filtering and UV disinfection.
YOUR SUPPORT Kidspace embodies our community’s aspirations for our families, our children, and our environment. Its growth and continual success have been made possible by the generous contributions of the local community. To realize our vision for a comprehensive and sustainable institution, we look to the support of individuals, corporations, and foundations who share our commitment to enhancing informal education for children in the arts, sciences and humanities.
DONOR OPPORTUNITIES 1 Kidspace Pathway 2 Multipurpose Theater and Traveling Exhibit Space
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4 Early Childhood Garden 5 East Pavilion
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8 Media Lab 9 Entry Patio 10 Courtyard Pavilion: CafĂŠ and Museum Store 11 Main Courtyard 12 West Pavilion 13 Classrooms 14 Patio 15 Welcome Plaza and Ticket Pavilion
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KIDSPACE CHILDREN’S MUSEUM
TEAM CREDITS
Tracy Bechtold Executive Director 480 N. Arroyo Boulevard Pasadena, CA 91103 626.449.9144 tbechtold@kidspacemuseum.org
ZIMMER GUNSUL FRASCA ARCHITECTS LLP Architecture / Planning / Interior Design HANDS ON! INC. Exhibit Design
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