Museum's science center to put learning at hand

The Bishop Museum's newest addition will be on the Diamond Head side of the grounds and would be the museum's largest single building. Among the attractions: A large volcano, a deep-ocean tank and remote-controlled submersibles to explore the Lo'ihi seamount. Phase 1 is expected to open at the end of 2005. Rendering courtesy Bishop Museum

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Science Writer

On Nov. 10, Bishop Museum will break ground on a $40 million science center that will provide students and adults a hands-on opportunity to learn about the Islands' volcanoes, oceans and biology.

"The museum's special role is to get people excited" and the new center seeks to do that, said museum director Bill Brown.

Visitors will have the chance to see a functioning volcano, with hot wax playing the role of lava, and will be able to operate undersea robots working on a mock-up of Lo'ihi, Hawai'i's youngest volcano, which is far beneath the surface of the sea.

It is designed to be a center unlike anything now in Hawai'i, using the latest in interactive museum technology, Brown said.

"Most, if not all states, have something like this, but Hawai'i doesn't have a science center," he said.

The $16 million first phase should be completed by mid-2005. The curved building will lie on the makai side of the museum's Great Lawn. A second phase, to be built later, will wrap around the diamondhead end of the lawn area, completing a circle of buildings around the central grass area.

A portion of the huge lawn at Bishop Museum will be covered by the museum's new science center. Officials say groundbreaking for the addition, which will stress interactive learning, will take place Nov. 10. Advertiser library photo

"This will make the museum feel much more like a campus," said senior exhibit designer Dave Kemble.

If the museum's traditional exhibits are things people go to see, this one will be designed to get people involved.

"We're trying to create immersive environments. I think this will be cutting edge in terms of museum design," Kemble said. "It will be a mixture of presentation areas and interactive exhibits."

Half of the $16 million for the 19,000-square-foot first phase is from the state. Bishop, although a private organization, is the state museum. Another $5 million came from the U.S. Department of Energy, and the remaining $3 million is from private contributions, the largest of these from the H.K. Castle Foundation.

Architects for the project include the local firm CDS International, plus a Portland, Ore., firm, Zimmer Gunsul Frasca, which specializes in science centers. Exhibit design is by another Mainland firm, Gyroscope.

The first phase will have three distinct themes: life, volcanoes and the deep ocean.

The Living Islands Gallery will house exhibits about the unique plants, creatures and geology of the Islands. Visitors will be able to view and interact with live insects and to view items from the museum's collections that explain the evolution of life in the Islands.

The 26-foot-high volcano will fill two floors of the structure. It will have walk-through lava tubes and spontaneous eruptions, plus opportunities for visitors to learn legends of volcanoes and to conduct their own experiments with actual molten rock — melted in a special gas-fired oven. Students will be able to climb into a "tree house" area to view the volcano from above.

The Deep Oceans Gallery will study the formation of Lo'ihi, and will allow visitors to operate deep-sea submersibles.

Kemble said the museum is working with the state Department of Education to ensure that the science center helps schools meet national standards.

Features will be aimed at fifth- and eighth-graders, but should be educational and interesting to folks younger than that right on up to adults, Kemble said.

The 15,000-square foot second phase of the center, for which money is not yet secured and timetables are not firmed up, will include an oceans gallery capable of producing 3-foot waves and a built-in-place research ship with exhibits on sonar, tsunami and ocean currents. A skies gallery will include an open second-floor viewing area with views of the south, north and eastern Hawaiian sky. And a science garden will work with scientific and cultural aspects of Hawai'i's plants and animals.

The 10,000-square-foot third phase of the science center is a gallery for traveling exhibitions, plus office and retail space.

The museum estimates that the completed center will have about 44,000 square feet of exhibition space.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.

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