After a decadelong effort to reimagine Palo Alto’s Junior Museum and Zoo, city officials on Saturday celebrated the groundbreaking of a new facility for the popular Rinconada Park attraction that will reopen to the public in 2020.
Once construction is completed, the space will increase accessibility for individuals with disabilities, as well as have a more modern look and feel. The project aims to preserve “the kid-friendly and intimate qualities of the old facility,” and hopes to offer more opportunities for visitors to learn and interact with exhibits, Friends of the Junior Museum and Zoo said in a press release Monday.
Aletha Coleman, president of the Friends group’s board of directors, thanked several key project figures at the ceremony, including donors to the project and the city of Palo Alto, according to the press release. The nonprofit group successfully raised its target of $25 million towards the project, with the Peery Foundation pledging $15 million. The City Council unanimously supported the ambitious plan at the end of last year.
The Junior Museum and Zoo, which welcomes nearly 200,000 guests annually, provides community resources for children to learn about science and zoology. The original facility, constructed in 1941, couldn’t adequately serve the museum’s various early-education science programs or growing number of visitors, according to the Friends group.
Last fall, the Institute of Museum and Library Services granted the project $270,124 in federal funding, all of which support a three-year program aimed at creating and sustaining programs geared toward children with physical and developmental disabilities. The program, called “Access from the Ground Up,” will include 27 new science exhibits, according to the city.
With the 18-month construction project underway, the Junior Museum and Zoo, as well as the Friends group, is in the process of moving the attraction into a temporary space at Cubberley Community Center, where the public can view exhibits. The kid-powered ball machine and giant climbing web, as well as the snake, skink and hedgehog exhibits, will also be on display at Cubberley.
John Aikin, the zoo’s executive director, expects the temporary space to open to the public by July 31.
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There were 200,000 visitors when visiting was free, asking only for voluntary donations. With all this money raised to redo the Junior Museum, wasn’t there anything to be set aside as an endowment for operations to continue free visits? Asking for $20 admission for a parent and 2 children, essentially eliminates short visits for pre-schoolers and after school children.
So once again, a premier public Palo Alto asset has become privatized and will only be available to the 1%.
Don’t expect that 200,000 visitors to continue.
I visited the Junior Museum many times with my grandchildren when they were young. It was a nice one hour outing. Too bad future residents will not have this benefit.
Unfortunately, in the current construction climate even $25 million won’t be enough to actually build the desired new museum. (There was a recent story about the downtown Apple store spending $6million just to remodel!) There will certainly be the need to raise additional funds for this project. So NO there isn’t money set aside to keep admission free.
Just the reality of modern life.
Non-profits throughout Palo Alto are rebuilding because developers, architects and their allies dominate their leadership, not because they need millions of dollars of reconstruction.
For example, Avenidas mammoth project, the Women’s Club, the several way-overblown library projects, the Arts Center, City Hall lobby (over $4 million), the children’s zoo, Castilleja, Paly High, the schools all over. And more.
My forecast is that the Zoo and Museum will close in 5 years due to financial reasons and lack of visitors. For something like the Oakland Zoo, or even Happy Hollow, a family may pay out this type of money for one outing each summer. But I can’t see this being comparable to either of those destinations.
My family went weekly to the zoo as part of a trip to the Childrens Library, and often more often when doing camps in the area. It was a 30 minute visit at most. Those types of visits will not be possible any more. Very sad all round.
I hope everything will work out well for the Junior Museum. It is such a sweet institution, and we have been fortunate to have it in our community.