The world’s largest children’s museum is getting bigger. The Children’s Museum of
Indianapolis plans to build a $15.7 million expansion with 37,500 square feet of new space including a welcome center, bus
driveway and bike port. The project is slated to begin in the next few months and should be done in time for the arrival of
a blockbuster King Tut exhibit scheduled to open in June 2009, said Craig Emsweller, the museum’s vice president of operations.
A preliminary rendering shows a towering glass entryway with a large dinosaur peeking inside, mirroring the dinosaur statues
outside the Dinosphere exhibit. The project will extend a skywalk into the museum, provide a safer entry drive, add new landscaping
and relocate a library branch within the museum. Funding will come from a $12.5 million Federal Transportation Administration
grant and a 20 percent local match. It would be the largest expansion since 2004 for the 433,500-square-foot museum between
Illinois and Meridian streets at 30th Street. A hearing on the project scheduled for today likely will be moved to Aug. 14.
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Welcome to Property Lines, Indy's source for neighborhood real estate news. Your host is Scott Olson, IBJ's real estate beat
reporter. Edited by Cory Schouten.
The world’s largest children’s museum is getting bigger. The Children’s Museum of
Indianapolis plans to build a $15.7 million expansion with 37,500 square feet of new space including a welcome center, bus
driveway and bike port. The project is slated to begin in the next few months and should be done in time for the arrival of
a blockbuster King Tut exhibit scheduled to open in June 2009, said Craig Emsweller, the museum’s vice president of operations.
A preliminary rendering shows a towering glass entryway with a large dinosaur peeking inside, mirroring the dinosaur statues
outside the Dinosphere exhibit. The project will extend a skywalk into the museum, provide a safer entry drive, add new landscaping
and relocate a library branch within the museum. Funding will come from a $12.5 million Federal Transportation Administration
grant and a 20 percent local match. It would be the largest expansion since 2004 for the 433,500-square-foot museum between
Illinois and Meridian streets at 30th Street. A hearing on the project scheduled for today likely will be moved to Aug. 14.
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It's also across the street from Fogo de Chao and Morton's....
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Yep, the haters are trying to make good news bad. I guess it is hard to get people to believe the series is dying when they are gaining new sponsors.
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David Copperfield! I remember watching his specials on TV when I was little.
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Don't forget this is next to an MMA gym, a pawn shop, and some abandoned spaces.
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Good project for Zionsville - A group who has owned the property for many years has waited and worked patiently to bring highest and best use development to a major corridor, and mix that in with the great downtown you have. Win Win. All the Best to Pittman Partners and Zionsville.
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As usual, pork projects are BAD unless it's in one's own district, then we're just getting what we've got coming to us since everyone else is feeding at the trough so we're entitled to our turn.
As a frequent visitor with my young child, connecting the parking deck's pedestrian ramp completely into the building is a great idea in cold or rainy weather while juggling a kid, stroller etc. Now it dumps out onto the sidewalk about 75 feet from the doors. The picture also seems to show it being enclosed all the way to the buildning. The only part that's enclsoed now is over the roadway - the majority of the rmap, maybe another 200 feet is exposed on both sides and the wind and rain and cold isn't so fun for that long of a trek, again, while carrying a kid.
I love seeing all the people and families take pictures of the Dinosaurs busting out of the building. These two no pre-historic creatures will bee fun to see also.
It was Carson, but it was also Bayh and Lugar that pushed for it as well, as they have both made comments about the Museum in the recent past.
Fun.
P.S. Towering Glass Entryway = high energy usage!!!! How about some green development and then create an exhibit showcasing it at a kid level.
Also, our roads are in horrible condition. Wouldn't 14.5 million dollars pave a bunch of roads leading to the museum, making actual transportation safer for all! Not to mention a more adequate use of federal transportation dollars?
I wish there were a way to toss them all out, especially the Senate. This project is great, but federal tax dollars going to transportation projects, c'mon!!!
Just remember Bayh's legacy is rampant gambling in Indiana, Lugar has stayed too long, and young Carson, all you that voted for him will be sorry.
One thing to keep in mind is that since Indiana is a donor state that gets top up funds to bring it to the minimum level allowed by law, my understanding is that earmarks only reduce the amount of funding Indiana gets elsewhere (by reducing the amount of top up or minimum guarantee funds), and thus has no net positive impact on the state in terms of how much it gets back from Washington.
Indiana only gets back about 90 cents on the dollar in gas taxes it sends to DC.
BOOO to Carson and Carson JR. he will do an even worse job for his constituents. Peace!
On another note, I think this area around the Children's Museum is really primed for a fair share of mixed use redevelopment!
It is time to send Washington a message – STOP THE PORK. In 2007 members of Congress requested more than 30,000 earmarks. It’s time for a change. SupportCongressman John Kline, and he is trying to charge business as usual in Washington. But he needs your help to stop wasteful pork-barrel spending. Help him send a message to his friends in Washington. By signing his petition and supporting this effort financially, he will send a clear message to Washington: we need to STOP THE PORK.
Congress refuses to reform the way they do business and they keep spending tax dollars on frivolous projects. In fact, Congress wasted billions of our hard earned tax dollars in 2007 on projects like:
• olive fruit fly research in Paris, France
• the Montana Sheep Institute
• the Lobster Institute
• and even money to develop a walking tour of Boydton, Virginia.
Enough is enough! By signing our petition – we can stop the pork.
How much more economic and social benefit would the City reap by converting a bleak single-focus, high-speed, one-way urban expressway (i.e. New York or Illinois Streets) into an attractive, well landscaped, multi-modal two-way neighborhood serving street? Is it any wonder the neighborhoods these streets traverse are virtually devoid of any economic activity or well-maintained housing?
All call for a spur of the Fall Creek Trail on Illinois to the front door of the museum. So the idea of an urban greenway on Illinois is at least 10 years old, but it probably won't take another 10 years to get it built. In fact, part of the local match for this project should be building the trail.
Could the money have been earmarked for something more important? Sure it could've, but this thing is moving forward and I will embrace this new addition to the museum.
If a dinosaur coming out of glass building gets my little girl excited about learning and going to the museum, then I am all for it.
Now, I am all for expansion of the CM. It is such a great asset to our City. I just don't like FTA dollars going to this.
I agree that this area is in need of some good, mixed-use projects. The former gas station that is now soome green space would make for a nice infill project.
Can someone please explan further where this building is actually to be built?
Is it going where the current walkway from the museum to the parking garage is, ontop of the current circle right in front of the museum?