Over the past few years, many of the top traveling exhibits that at one time landed at the Carnegie Science Center have spurned Pittsburgh because of the lack of space. But that soon could be changing.
Center officials detailed plans Tuesday for the construction of a new $21 million Science Pavilion on the east side of the North Shore facility that will include 14,000 square feet of “Smithsonian Institution level” exhibition space.
“With this new traveling exhibition space, we’ll be able to bring to Pittsburgh the kind of blockbuster traveling exhibitions that are all over North America now, that come to Philadelphia and Chicago and Washington, D.C., but bypass Pittsburgh because there isn’t adequate space,” co-director Ann Metzger told city planning commission members during a briefing.
Among those shows the center lost were “Cleopatra,” “Da Vinci,” and “The Science of Pixar.”
The three-story pavilion, which will wrap around the existing Omnimax Theater and face the Ohio River, will feature nine STEM learning labs and a top-floor space for special events, competitions, conferences and social and civic gatherings.
“So the point I wanted to make is that the Science Pavilion that’s being presented to you today is part of a very strategic and well thought-out plan that we have been engaged in for six years now,” Ms. Metzger said.
Construction is expected to start this fall, with the opening slated for June 2018.
While not part of the pavilion project, the center also will renovate the Omnimax Theater, converting it from film to a laser and digital format, Ms. Metzger said.
Planning commission members, who will vote on the proposed expansion in two weeks, largely praised the project, although one, Sabina Deitrick, said the facade — made up of glass and perforated aluminum plates on metal panels — “looks pretty bland” during the day. It will be illuminated at night.
Also Tuesday, Oxford Development Co. briefed the commission on plans for a fourth office building at its 3 Crossings project in the Strip District. Ben Kelley, Oxford’s development manager, said there is no definite date for the start of construction of the five-story, $43 million Riverfront West building. The company, he said, is talking with prospective tenants about occupying the space at 2545 Railroad St.
Mark Belko: mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262.
First Published: September 21, 2016, 4:00 a.m.
