In the News

04.19.2004

"Science center board adopts concept plan: Search for architect begins; fund raising campaign
kicks off"

by Diane Weaver Dunne in the Hartford Business Journal

A simulated space walk over Connecticut, a crime lab where visitors can break cases, and a 275-seat IMAX-style theater with a dome for planet viewing are likely to be among the various exhibits at the new Connecticut Center for Science & Exploration. The science center’s board of trustees adopted a 32-page concept plan last Thursday, April 15, that includes these exhibits and guides the direction of the center’s programs and building design. It also includes a business plan that estimates the operating budget to be about $10 million annually when the center opens in late 2007. A program committee, headed by Yale University President Richard Levin, drafted the concept plan and submitted it to the board for approval. The plan sets in motion the selection of an architect to design the $150 million project and the kick-off of its $36 million fund-raising campaign.

The science center is a key component of the state’s Adriaen’s Landing project, and will serve as a tourist attraction that enhances Hartford’s revitalization efforts. Board member Cheryl Chase, executive vice president and general counsel for Chase Enterprises, will chair the architect selection committee. An architect will be selected by October 2004 and construction is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2005. The board agreed on some broad design frameworks for the 160,000 square-foot science center, requesting it be a bold and striking facility that is seen as a symbol of science and technology. The building must be compatible with the neighborhood, the Connecticut River and Hartford’s redevelopment, according to the plan’s guidelines. The building must also be “green,” a design that is energy efficient, and demonstrates alternative energy sources. Ron Katz, the former development director for the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, was recently hired to direct the science center’s fund-raising effort. To date, $107.3 million in state funds have been identified for the center: $92.3 million of state Urban Act funds for the design and construction of the center and $15 million from the state Capital City Economic Development Authority. Approximately $2 million in private funds has been received, and land for the site valued at approximately $5 million was donated by The Phoenix Cos.

The strategy for science center programs is to “wow” visitors by focusing on an interactive concept of exploration and discovery. The plan suggests 11 exhibit pavilions, including a Connecticut River Watershed encounter with participation from Robert Ballard, a crime and forensic lab created in collaboration with Dr. Henry Lee, and a focus on Connecticut’s industrial history and its inventions. An exhibit will also be geared to children younger than seven years of age, which will include river water play and a live animal center. (See listing of recommended exhibits below.)

“This isn’t about one new science center. It really is about elementary and secondary schools, colleges, universities, and corporations all saying that we need a greater proportion of our young people choosing to study science, and to make it a part of their lifetime and career.” – Theodore Sergi, president and CEO, The Connecticut Center for Science & Exploration

The long-range goal of the center is to engage young people and adults in the study of science, says Theodore Sergi, president and CEO of the science center. Sergi, a former math teacher who headed the state’s education department for nine years, was tapped to head the center in December 2003 shortly after he retired. Sergi notes that only 14 percent of American graduate students pursue the hard sciences, compared with 42 percent in Japan and 39 percent in Germany. “Pfizer can’t find enough chemists,” Sergi explains, noting the pharmaceutical firm must recruit from outside the state and country. “We are way behind in proportion, in terms of the human power — our intellectual power — that choose these fields. And collectively, this isn’t about one new science center,” he adds. “It really is about elementary and secondary schools, colleges, universities, and corporations all saying that we need a greater proportion of our young people choosing to study science, and to make it a part of their lifetime and career.” The center expects to serve 100,000 school children, both on-site and off-site, and attract 400,000 visitors annually. Some of those off-site programs are expected to begin before the building opens in 2007. It will also offer teacher training in the sciences.

In addition to increasing the state’s scientific abilities and knowledge, Sergi anticipates the center will be an economic driver for both the city and state. “There is a lot of economic activity that takes place at a center this size, from the visitors, to the employees, to the vendors,” says Sergi. He estimates the science center will employ between 90 and 100 employees and utilize numerous volunteers who will participate in the city’s economy. A 2002 economic impact study by the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk — which is comparable in size to the proposed science center — reported that it paid $1.2 million in state taxes annually and generated $15 million in direct economic impact from visitors, vendors and employees. In the 116 days since Sergi was selected to head the center, he has set up offices on Columbus Boulevard and hired a small staff to move the project forward. He hopes to expedite the project, moving it ahead of its original projected opening date of 2009 by two years. “This is long overdue, 20 years in the making,” Sergi says. “We are definitely, considerably behind other cities and states who have investments in science centers.” There are about 338 U.S. science centers, science museums and related organizations that belong to the nonprofit Association of Science-Technology Centers. Sergi credits Gov. John Rowland for championing the science center. “The state has a huge interest in this educationally and economically,” he says. The amount of excitement the science center is generating among teachers, corporate leaders, nonprofit organization members and average citizens surprises Sergi. “Everywhere I’ve been since early December, friends, colleagues over the years, and people I’ve known and worked with, come up and say the same thing, ‘That’s exciting!’ says Sergi. “I think people find science and technology exciting. They fear it. They have anxiety about some of it. But they really do find it exciting.”

INSET
Plan calls for 12 areas at science center
The concept plan approved by the board of trustees for the Connecticut Center for Science & Exploration includes exhibit pavilions with 12 themes as well as an IMAX-style, giant screen film theater, a café, a museum shop and outdoor exhibits. The themed areas include:

• Connecticut River watershed encounter and “riverine ecosystem”
• Exploring the global environment (includes a journey to the center of the earth and the bottom of the oceans)
• Investigating health and medicine (includes crime lab)
• Experimenting with matter, energy and information (includes electricity theater, inventor’s workshop)
• Imagining the universe (includes an outerspace and flight simulation)
• Forum for public understanding of research (focus on technologies of the future compared with the past)
• Connecticut connections and cultures (focus on Connecticut-based technological innovations)
• Science of sports
• Discovery worlds for children under age seven
• Traveling exhibits
• Imaginarium theater
• Plans also call for an exterior pavilion with a river view, a function room, a teacher resource center and themed program labs.

Reprinted from the Hartford Business Journal, April 19, 2004