Our new Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science is making more and more progress at the construction site. On a recent Channel 7 News story, Museum COO Frank Steslow showed 7News around the construction site, talking about the cultural, educational, and economic benefits of the new Museum project, and pointing out some of the amazing features you can expect to see when the building opens in 2015: a spherical planetarium with external projections that can make the sphere look like the Earth or anything else we can imagine, a rooftop garden with fitness trail, a martini-glass shaped aquarium where you will see hammerhead sharks swimming above your head, and more.

This week, Gillian Thomas, President and CEO of the Miami Science Museum, took the Miami Herald on a tour of the construction site of our upcoming Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science. The excitement is building, as the Museum is starting to literally come up out of the ground!

Click here for the grand tour!

If you read the recent post on this blog and were hoping for a real time-lapse video of the construction so far on our new Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science, your wish has been granted. The following video was released today, and condenses months of work into just 14 seconds. Watch closely!

If you’ve ever seen one of those time-lapse videos – bustling crowds at Grand Central Station, swirling clouds steadily forming into a hurricane, or construction workers erecting a building bit by bit – it really makes you appreciate the action in a whole new way. In the case of those clouds, if you see just one image, it may look calm and serene. But if you see a sequence of images showing a hurricane forming, it can feel like an intense, dynamic spectacle. It’s kind of like a zoetrope, which is a device that has been around for thousands of years, that gives the illusion of motion through a series of images in rapid succession. In the image below, the little girl is watching the zoetrope at the Miami Science Museum.

When the little girl leans down to look through the slits in the side of the rotating cylinder, the images of the still-frame horses appear to be one galloping horse.

Documenting the construction of the new Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science is like that zoetrope. On any given day, a photo can be taken of lots of workers doing their jobs bit by bit. But looking at a few photos in sequence, you can begin to see the changes in action. Just imagine how the building and these workers would look in a time-lapse video. Or even through a zoetrope. Stay tuned for more action!

June 20, 2012 (For reference, notice the new Perez Art Museum Miami under construction in the background, and the Adrienne Arsht Center to the left)

September 10, 2012 (from the same viewpoint)

November 28, 2012 (from the same viewpoint; the Arsht Center is just off the image to the left)

It can be difficult for some schools to provide opportunities to get their students to the Museum. And it’s a goal of the Museum to involve our entire community (and beyond) in the amazing adventure of science. So through our Science Stars program, we are making an effort to go out into the community to reach those students who are not able to visit us. Between now and the opening of our new Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science, we will work with Miami-Dade County Public Schools to select nine schools per year and connect that school with a “Science Star” who will give a special presentation about their field of science and what inspired them to pursue that career. Each school, along with children’s families, will then be invited to a free event at the Museum where they will receive a free 1-year family membership to the Museum – so they can come back again!

In December the program continued with a visit to Comstock Elementary School with Science Star Lindsay Bartholomew. With a background in physics and astronomy, and currently the Science Curator for the Miami Science Museum, Lindsay shared stories about what inspired her to pursue a career in science (those first glimpses at the Moon through a telescope, hearing from her Grandpa at 5 years old that the Sun was 93 MILLION miles away), and shared other stories about some unique experiences that continue to inspire her (like going on an expedition to Antarctica to learn about climate change). During the presentation, students were taken on a trek into Antarctica (did you know that baby penguins go to “penguin kindergarten” when they’re old enough for their parents to go get dinner, but not quite old enough to be left alone?), and then on a journey through the solar system (did you know that Saturn would float if you could find a bathtub big enough?). Then Lindsay led the students in a Jeopardy-like trivia game, and made a scientific discovery – Comstock Elementary has lots of potential future scientists!

Do you know the question for this trivia answer in the “Planet Puzzle” category? The students did!

Channel 10 reporter Christina Vazquez speaks with Museum President Gillian Thomas at the construction site for the new Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science

Museum President and CEO Gillian Thomas, Vice President of Marketing Tony Lima, and the workers at the construction site for the new Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science had a very special visitor this week. Channel 10 WPLG reporter Christina  Vazquez joined them on “the plaza level” of the new Museum building – which was a first for everyone!

The visit resulted in a piece aired on Wednesday evening’s newscast, as well as a Channel 10 webpage to support our story. Click here to watch the broadcast, read the story, and see lots of amazing photos!

2013 Galaxy Gala Committee (from left to right): Patty Garcia, Irene Korge, Linda Levy Goldberg, Lizette Martino Diaz, Tori Anderson, Rose Weiss, Alan Randolph, Alicia Cervera, Anne Owen, Tara Solomon, Gillian Thomas, Trish Bell, Nancy Batchelor, Nicole Lozano, Jennifer Diliz, Maria Goodno, Steven Arch, Jennifer Gibbs, Terry Buoniconti, Swanee Dimare, Maria Beguiristain, Kristen Scorza, Abigail Dubearn. Not Pictured: Ana Maria Bezerra, Debora Duro, Joseph Falk, Vanessa Grout, Lee Hare, Caressa Lanier, Lesley Lyons-Monahan, Bronwyn Miller, Brenda Nestor Castellano, Helena Poleo, Kim Smith, Electra Spillis, Elizabeth Taylor, Susie Wahab, Dale Webb, Steven Weinger.

Under the leadership of co-chairs Nancy Batchelor and Nicole Lozano, along with a stellar committee of the leading ladies and gentlemen of Miami’s business and philanthropic communities, the Committee for the 2013 Galaxy Gala is off to a great start!

Scheduled for March 9, 2013, the gala’s theme this year will be centered on an out of this world aquatic experience. The inspirations are the outdoor aquatic spaces and the 600,000 gallon aquarium facility that will be featured in the museum’s new facility at Museum Park. Among the many amazing elements conceived by Miami’s top event planning/marketing company WOW Factor for the gala are: live fish tanks, an LED screen over the dance floor that will make guests feel like they’re truly under the sea, and a few surprises that will blow guests out of the water!

Committee members have already helped line up top sponsors that include Neiman Marcus, Bacardi, City National Bank and Baptist Hospital, among others. In addition, they have secured a line-up of top-notch, luxurious items for the auction that range from a Gucci handbag and Rene Ruiz gift certificates to a 2-night stay at the Shore Club and box seats to the Sony Ericsson tennis finals.

The gala is taking place just as the construction on the new facility continues to progress. Designed by internationally recognized Grimshaw Architects, the 250,000 square-foot Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science will be among the world’s most innovative and sustainable science museums. According to Grimshaw, the Museum is intended to act as a demonstration of ecological and sustainability principles. The building will harness energy from water, sun, wind and even museum visitors to power exhibits and conserve resources.

Slated for completion in 2014 and grand opening in 2015, the Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science will be state-of-the-art center for science education and innovation.

The new Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science, opening in 2015 in Downtown Miami’s Museum Park, will be counted among the world’s most innovative and sustainable science museums. The building itself will harness energy from water, the Sun, wind, and even Museum visitors to power exhibits and conserve resources, and visitors will explore everything from a 600,000 gallon aquarium facility to a full-dome 3D planetarium. Click on the link below to tell us what you want to know!

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Lead Donors Patricia and Phillip Frost

Everyone could feel the excitement under the big, white tent at Museum Park on the morning of Friday, February 24^th, as the community gathered to celebrate the groundbreaking of the new Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science in Downtown Miami.

Over 300 people from the community gathered on the actual ground where the Museum will eventually stand, to celebrate this momentous occasion. Guests included lead donors Patricia and Phillip Frost, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, City of Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado, Superintendent of Schools Alberto M. Carvalho, City and County Commissioners, members of the Museum’s Board of Trustees, including Co-Chairs Trish and Dan Bell, the Museum’s staff members, and representatives from the Museum’s ambassador groups, including the MiaSci Young Patrons, MiaSci Moms, MiaSci Teen Ambassadors, and the Teacher Ambassador Group.

John A. Ferguson High School's Marching Band

John A. Ferguson High School’s famed marching band energized the crowd with their performance and kept the crowd grooving as shovels hit the ground and a backhoe dug deep into the ground.

Miami-Dade County Public Schools Regional Science Fair Winners proudly displayed their projects and happily discussed them with groundbreaking guests. As part of the event, the Museum also announced the launch of its new Science Stars program, which will involve leading scientists visiting Dade County schools to get students excited about different fields of science and about all the attractions and opportunities the new Museum will offer.

Flags and markings on the ground outlined exactly where the building’s components will be once constructed: the Living Core, Planetarium, Energy Playground, People and Science Gallery and more, so that guests got a true feel for the magnitude of the 250,000 square foot building. Guests also got to leave their digital footprint by recording their thoughts on camera for the Museum’s Digital Time Capsule (which will soon be available on the website).

The crowd at the highly anticipated groundbreaking event

The new Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science is truly a museum the community has built. In 2004, voters approved the first sum of money for the project through Miami-Dade County’s Building Better Communities Bond Program to support design and construction. Since then, with the continued support of the County, as well as the City of Miami, Patricia and Phillip Frost, the John S. and John L. Knight Foundation, and countless other supporters, the new Museum, years in the making, is finally becoming a reality.

The Museum will continue to share information about the building’s progress as construction gets underway. Keep checking this site for updates, as well as our New Museum blog at http://miasci.org

Check out pictures of the groundbreaking event as well as renderings of the new Museum below:

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