Kidspace leaders finally celebrate

Museum breaks ground after cutting through much red tape By Elizabeth Lee Staff Writer

December 14, 2001

PASADENA -- After a contentious trip through City Hall bureaucracy and a battle in the courts, the leaders of Kidspace Children's Museum celebrated the launch of construction for their new home in the Arroyo Seco at a special ceremony Thursday. About 50 people attended the event in one of three white clapboard buildings that used to be the Fannie E. Morrison horticultural center in Brookside Park.

By June 2003 the museum -- now at 390 S. El Molino Ave. in Pasadena -- is scheduled to open in the arroyo, with the three existing structures renovated plus a new, 18,000-square-foot building designed by architect Michael Maltzan.

"There were times I thought it was going to be a long way off, but I never doubted it would happen," said Carol Scott, Kidspace executive director. "It's the right thing for the kids of this community."

Construction of the new museum is projected to cost $13.5 million, and the exhibits another $7 million, she said.

Kidspace, founded in 1979 by the Junior League of Pasadena, has grown in popularity over the years and drew 125,000 visitors last year, according to Scott.

Museum officials' efforts to build a new facility faced stiff resistance from neighbors and advocates of the Arroyo Seco, who objected to the city giving Kidspace a long-term lease of the horticultural center site.

Advocates for the arroyo sued to overturn the city's approval of the project but lost, and Kidspace gained possession of the site in late November. Preliminary work removing lead paint and asbestos from the buildings started earlier this month.

Kidspace officials promised the finished product will re-introduce kids to mystery and discovery from the moment they step into the kaleidoscope tunnel planned for the entrance.

Two climbing towers higher than 30 feet will beckon to young visitors, one simulating a giant wisteria vine and the other a series of giant raindrops.

In a spacious natural area behind the complex, kids can wander the paths of a "grassy meadow maze" of tall grasses that grow above their heads, or dam up a creek that runs down the hill.

The natural space will be enclosed, but it won't be the kind of place where parents can look up at any moment and expect to spot their children, said Laurie Lewis of Nancy Goslee Power & Associates, which is designing the outdoor areas. The firm designed the new sculpture garden at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.

Kids will be encouraged to "lose" their parents and explore on their own.

"Kids are going to be able to forget themselves up there," Lewis said, adding she wanted it to keep the charm and mystery of nature rather than appear like some sort of theme park. "They're going to get muddy. ... We all kind of felt that to dumb it down and make it feel nice and controlled would be missing the point."

The semi-circular, crumbling wisteria trellis will be restored, and there also will be a courtyard with a water feature, possibly a "marble jet" fountain, she said.

Maltzan's building will house everything from a real bakery -- where kids can bake their own treats and get a feel for running a business -- to a construction zone where children can talk over radios and even operate a small crane.

The structure, with its long, bold lines, is designed to "open" the quadrant of museum buildings rather than give the complex an enclosed feel, said Tim Williams, project designer with Michael Maltzan Architecture Inc. Visitors will be surprised with glimpses of the park and the hillsides beyond.

"I think the building really has these kinds of hidden moments," Williams said, adding that was in keeping with the museum's theme. "The building is really very much a tool."

-- Elizabeth Lee can be reached at (626) 578-6300, Ext. 4461, or by e-mail at elizabeth.lee@sgvn.com.