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Children's Museum "Muse" 50% Complete
On Track For May Opening
January 12, 2007—Construction for the Children's Museum/Museo de los Niños San Diego’s new downtown facility has surpassed the 50 percent mark, putting the 50,000-square-foot, three-story facility on track for its May 2008 opening.
According to David Weigel, project manager with Erickson-Hall Construction, the exterior concrete wall panels and most of the structural steel is in place and the structural steel roof trusses are currently being installed. The roof deck, skylights and roofing will follow. Children and their parents can watch the construction progress from their own computers via a webcam at childrensmuseumsd.org.
“With construction progressing as planned, we are on schedule for the anticipated completion date next year,” explained Weigel. “It is amazing to see this unusual structure take shape.”
Vertical construction began on the new $25 million structure in September. Designed by renowned architect and downtown San Diego resident Rob Wellington Quigley, the environmentally friendly, modern structure is made from recycled building materials and will feature water-saving devices, natural day lighting and convection cooling making it a “green” building.
The atrium-style structure, will feature a dramatic entrance bridge that spans from Island Avenue into the transparent museum to a point 17 feet above the lower level, a glass-enclosed elevator tower that rises above the building and functions as a convection cooling tower, and an angled saw-tooth roof structure with space for future solar heating panels.
“We are so pleased with how the building is coming along,“ said Kay Wagner, executive director of Children’s Museum San Diego. “It is exciting to think that in less than a year the new Museum will be open to for all to enjoy!”
Children's Museum/Museo de los Niños San Diego is a cultural and educational institution with a quarter-century history of hands-on, arts-based programs for children and their families. The new Museum being built at 200 West Island Avenue will include art galleries, studios and classrooms, in addition to a public charter school, birthday party rooms, store and café.
For more information on the Museum or to contribute to its Capital Campaign, visit the website at childrensmuseumsd.org or phone 619 233 8792.
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