Tuesday

Local News Nevada Discovery Childrens Museum

You can’t imagine my excitement when I heard that the downtown Reno would be getting its own children’s museum in 2009.  Named the Nevada Discovery Museum, the project is located at 490 South Center Street, in the former City Hall building. The project will open with eight main interactive areas on two floors, including Nevada Stories, an area where children can learn and experience the rich history of Nevada.  The 40-foot tall Cloud Climber, a giant climbing apparatus that encourages motor development and fosters exploration and problem-solving, and can carry the weight of adults as well! Exhibits also include Water Works, a working model of the Tahoe/Truckee/Pyramid water ecosystem, and Build It!, an area for children of all ages to learn about building and construction.  As you can see from the photos, very little is left over from the original city hall and demo is nearly complete.

The project should be in the permit acquisition stage by the end of May, at which time construction should begin and last 18 months, for the 2009 opening target.  The museum’s primary goal is to provoke new aspirations and collaborations among children, parents and educators, and to allow today’s children to grow into tomorrow’s leaders, dreamers, scientists, farmers, artists, teachers and helpers.  The Discovery Museum is exactly what downtown Reno needs to continue the downtown renaissance.

By Mike Van Houten

Mike operates the downtown makeover website, visit www.downtownmakeover.com for all the latest on downtown Reno occurrences.