Exploration Place installs sensory garden, carpet that gives bird’s eye view of city
A “magic carpet” that provides a bird’s eye view underfoot and a sensory garden on what had been an oft-unused observation deck overlooking the Arkansas River are two new spaces at Exploration Place that will be celebrated with a grand opening starting Friday, Aug. 4.
The Magic Carpet installation features a new customized carpet, along with information panels, based on satellite imagery of a 26.2-mile stretch — the equivalent of a marathon —of the Arkansas River. The carpet covers the floor of the 145-foot walkway connecting the entrance and exhibition sections of the science museum.
The sensory garden, accessed by a door between the Explore Kansas and Kansas in Miniature exhibition spaces, features 10 planter boxes filled with more than 50 plant species and two metal sound-making sculptures that can be played. Visitors can also create a tornado in a water-filled structure on the patio, a nod to the popular tornado-making machine inside the Explore Kansas area. A curvy bench, shaded with two umbrellas, provides a place for visitors to sit and enjoy the garden and the view across the Arkansas River.
The new spaces are creating additional learning opportunities for the thousands of visitors welcomed annually at the science center, say Exploration Place officials. Exploration Place announced earlier this week that it had broken its attendance record with 363,047 visitors during its most recent fiscal year, which ended June 30. The previous high of 348,532 was in the fiscal 2000-01 year, which was the center’s first year of operation.
When the worn-out carpet on the walkway needed to be replaced, Exploration Place president and CEO Adam Smith remembered seeing a unique customized carpet in the Sacramento Airport. He tracked down the same carpetmaker last year —Ulster Carpets, based in Ireland — to work on the new carpet.
“It took longer than I expected,” Smith said. “It was a technical challenge since we were working with such a large satellite image.”
The center’s graphic designer, Alan Cook, was able to manipulate the image into a suitable format to stretch the walkway.
“I wanted this to be a journey along the 26 miles of the river,” Smith said.
The carpet represents an expanse stretching from Derby in the south to Maize and Valley Center in the north. The Arkansas and Little Arkansas rivers are represented in an inky black color, while the familiar circular rooftop of Century II is depicted in a light blue color. Shapes of buildings and other structures, like the Keeper of the Plains statue at the rivers’ confluence, appear in a lighter color.
Fourteen information panels provide fun and educational facts on everything from Derby’s original name (El Paso) to the ecosystems, along with landmark information.
For the sensory garden, Stacy Smith, the center’s groundskeeper, has planted a mix of annuals and perennials that offer both visually appealing showy colors and interesting textures to touch, like lamb’s ear and wormwood.
Smith, who was hired last year as part of Exploration Place’s plan to start branching out into creating more outdoor spaces, started ordering plants for the new garden in November and overwintered them in the center’s new greenhouse before they were planted outdoors in June. While the garden has been open for a few months, Exploration Place has been putting finishing touches on the space.
The 900-square-foot observation deck provides a northeasterly view across the Arkansas River.
In addition to celebrating the grand opening of the two new installations, Exploration Place will also show noted environmentalist Jane Goodall’s 40-minute movie “Reasons for Hope” in The Dome beginning Aug. 4. The film includes stories of the migration of the northern bald ibis, the Blackfeet Nation reintroducing the American bison, the rehabbing of greenspaces in Sudbury, England, and historic footage from Goodall’s beginnings as a chimpanzee researcher.
Exploration Place
Located at 300 N. McLean Blvd.
Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily with extended hours until 8 p.m. on Thursdays
Admission: $12 for ages 12-64, $10 for ages 3-11 and older than 65, free for ages 2 and younger and members. Dome theater tickets may be purchased separately or in addition to regular exhibit admission.
More info: exploration.org or 316-660-0600
