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Children's Museum to revamp area for preschoolers

 IBJ Staff and Associated Press
September 30, 2010
Keywords
Arts & Entertainment, etc., Children's Museum, Donors, Grants, PNC Financial, Philanthropy, Preschool
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The Children's Museum of Indianapolis has received a three-year, $700,000 grant to renovate its early childhood exhibit, Playscape.

The PNC Foundation announced the grant on Wednesday. It is the first major gift the PNC Foundation has made in Indianapolis through its signature philanthropic cause, Grow Up Great, a 10-year, $100 million bilingual initiative to improve early childhood education.

PNC Foundation receives its principal funding from the Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group, which acquired National City Bank in 2008 with the help of government bailout loans.

National City had long been Indianapolis’ No. 2 bank. Thanks to the deal, PNC now has 89 branches, 149 ATMs and about 1,100 employees in the Indianapolis area.

The museum's nearly 20-year-old Playscape area is an interactive exhibit for children ages 5 and younger where kids can create pictures, play in sand and build with blocks. The renovation is expected to be completed by early 2013.

The grant also will pay for teacher training workshops on early childhood development and how to use the exhibit to improve school readiness.

The 473,000-square-foot museum is the largest children's museum in the world and the most visited children's museum in the country.

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  1. First, the Athenaeum is going to have to get past the hurdle with the Lockerbie residents and the agreement that the parcel would be residential. Second, and in my opinion, this prime piece of property should include parking, PLUS, a black box theater(s), some market rate and affordable artist housing and a plan to renovate and reconfigure the second story theater. I would negotiate to add the DeHaan property surface parking lot into the development mix, place a one story surface parking garage on the DeHaan lot on the street level (for the Dehaan tenants use during the daytime) and add a second story to the garage that would become an addition to the current second story theater and then change the direction of the theater by moving the stage across the alley and on top of the DeHaan lot parking. You can add all the stage elements that are currently missing from the Athenaeum stage to make it more attractive for use by Ballet, Opera and traveling productions. Plus, the theater changes would probably help solve some of the soundproofing issues. Alas,it does not seem to be a part of the strategic plan to conduct a study to determine best use of the property. Seems like the current plan is a quick and easy move that ignores the property best use/potential and any strategic property planning for the effect on future generations.

  2. I recall that MSA's pilings are still in the ground and hard to remove. It’s not likely any proposal will include significant underground construction/parking because of this. Start adding 2 floors of retail, 8 floors of parking and 5-10 floors of possible hotel, and/or 10-20 floors of residential, and you are at 30 floors already with possible expansion of all the uses. But then again I could be wrong.

  3. Accoriding to their website there is no deadline to the Do Not Call list. What is this article referring to??

  4. On what planet are they entitled to this largesse from the stockholders? These people make multi-million dollar salaries: Pay for your own personal travel.

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