24 Jun 2019
Expansion for Greensboro Science Center aims to 'open minds and build futures'
BY Andy Knaggs
A new ten-year plan has been unveiled by Greensboro Science Center (GSC) in North Carolina, US, incorporating a package of expansions and renovations to the site, which currently features an aquarium, museum and zoo.
GSC will invest US$45m (€39.5m, £35.3m) in capital improvements, which it says will generate more than US$80m (€70.2m, £62.8m) in economic impact during the period from 2020 to 2030. Among the highlight additions of its plan ‒ titled The Gateway Project: Opening Minds and Building Futures through Science and the Arts ‒ will be an outdoor amphitheatre overlooking the site's lake, where educational programming and entertainment will be delivered.
There will be new nature play zones, a boardwalk around the lake, and a promenade, as well as a science-inspired sculpture on the approach to GSC.
The entrance plaza will undergo an art and technology facelift, while areas for viewing meerkats and gibbons will be improved to give new perspectives on the animals. The gibbons will get a new water feature.
GSC said there will be "Domes of Discovery" throughout the zoo, facilitating interactive storytelling, while immersive art and technology will feature throughout the centre, and suspended multimedia displays will tell interactive science stories.
Overall, the plan seeks to find ways of combining art and science to create new perspectives, while the gateway theme suggested in the title of the plan is delivered through a series of architectural gateways that frame and define the exhibits.
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