The Portland Children’s Museum Expands with Outdoor Adventure

Portland, June 6th, 2013. The Portland Children’s Museum broke ground on the Museum’s largest capital expansion since moving to Washington Park in 2001. The new exhibit, Outdoor Adventure, will transform 1.3 acres of land around the Museum into year-round outside play space.

Museum staff were joined by the board of directors at the groundbreaking with major project funders, including representatives from The Standard, The Blazer’s make it better foundation, Cambia Health Solutions, Knowledge Universe, Wells Fargo and Maybelle Clark MacDonald Fund. Executive Director Ruth Shelly and board president Shawn DuBurg led the charge. Officials from Andersen Construction, the exhibit’s lead contractor, also joined in the celebration.

ABOUT OUTDOOR ADVENTURE

Outdoor Adventure will invite children and their families to play and connect to the natural world. The exhibit will provide environments that stimulate curiosity and creativity, where children of all backgrounds and abilities are free to explore, and adults can see the outdoors through a child’s unique perspective.

The all-weather, all-seasons exhibit will include trails and ravines, a campsite, a meadow, and a creek, as well as a pavilion and amphitheater, among other exhibit features. Phase I of the exhibit, Zany Maze, opened on April 22, 2012. Phase 2 is currently slated for opening in spring 2014.

The exhibit seeks to follow LEED standards for structures to model resource conservation and environmental stewardship. Settings are designed to be sustainable by preserving and incorporating natural features, including current trees, plants, and rocks; landscaping to support visual and acoustic separation of spaces using plants that are non-toxic and non-invasive; creating ground features that take advantage of Portland’s climate; and designed to follow the natural contours of the land. For more about Outdoor Adventure, and to view artist renderings, visit portlandcm.org/outdoor-adventure/.

ABOUT PORTLAND CHILDREN’S MUSEUM

Portland Children’s Museum is the museum that doesn’t act like a museum. You won’t find any velvet ropes inside, and playing with and touching our exhibits is strongly encouraged. Our main exhibit is the imagination of the children who play here. Every activity from permanent and traveling exhibits to art studios and classes is designed to encourage children to play and wonder while they learn about themselves and the world around them. For more about Portland Children’s Museum, visit portlandcm.org.

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