Fort Worth Museum Of Science And History – Exclusive Photo Tour

Surely, a lot of people in Fort Worth have fond memories of the old Museum of Science and History. It’s where you could see caveman brain surgery, watch movies about volcanoes, and eat metric tons of astronaut ice cream. Undoubtedly, there were some misty eyes as the museum’s long-running home was demolished to make way for the new building.

Now, that new building has arrived. The new Fort Worth Museum of Science and History opens tomorrow (Friday, November 20th) to the public. Fort Worthology was fortunate enough to get a sneak peek before the public opening, though, and we have one of our big photo tours of the new museum to pique your interest before tomorrow’s grand opening.

The new building was designed by Legorreta + Legorreta of Mexico. It is as different from the old structure, and from everything else in the Cultural District, as you could imagine. In a district thus far filled with the striking Japanese modernism of the Modern, the intimate and masterful vaults of the Kimbell, the jet-age swank of the Carter, the zany Buckminster Fuller futurism of Cana Manana, and the Art Deco zigzags of the Will Rogers Memorial Center and the Cowgirl Museum, the new Museum of Science and History plops down a blocky, vibrantly-colored set of forms that seem to be the work of parallel-universe Aztecs from the future.

Where the old building was basically a gussied-up ’50s high school that sort of blended into the scene, the new building is nothing if not extremely bold.

The museum’s entrance, occupying what used to be a street but is now a plaza shared with the Cowgirl Museum, is marked by the Lantern, one of the signature elements of the design.

Bright Legorreta colors abound, such as on this window on the second level.

The square is a signature element of the museum’s design, and this element is carried over to many components of the building, both large and small. The railings on the steps leading up to the entrance are a great example.

Let’s head inside – cue up some They Might Be Giants on your iPod, because science awaits.

They Might Be Giants – Put It to the Test from They Might Be Giants on Vimeo.

On the floor in the entrance is this inlaid compass, saved from the old building and re-used here.

Looking up gives a view through the Lantern, with bright yellow framing views of the sky above.

Walking into the cavernous main lobby, you look across to the central courtyard under the mezzanine. The building likes playing with ceiling heights, with giant tall-ceilinged rooms leading into radically lower spaces, and back again.

Many of the ceilings feature a barrel vault design that echos the Kimbell.

Another main lobby angle.

Walking into the main courtyard takes you past a seating area into the open-air space, with a water feature and a tree from the original museum that was built around.

The main courtyard seating area.

The courtyard’s water feature, with water pouring down a slanted path as well as out of a smaller fountain in the corner.

Heading back inside, we go down the main hallway. This hallway features a “spine” of bright yellow beams running its length. This hallway leads to several exhibit spaces, the Children’s Museum, and the museum store.

This is the museum store, far larger than that of the old building.

We were told that the counter in the museum store is made from, among other things, reclaimed concrete and glass.

Also in the museum store is this sculpture that doubles as entertainment. It’s a slide, where kids can climb up the tail and slide down the mouth. Among other elements, a large part of this sculpture is made from an old bumper car.

The reflective convex surfaces of the sculpture’s sides. The sculpture is surrounded by a softly-sprung floor to keep things safe.

Across from the museum store is a large central space that provides access to more exhibit space as well as several themed “interactive” rooms, such as Designer, Inventor, Doodler, Dreamer, and the like.

Inside the Dreamer room.

The Doodler room, with a window looking into the central courtyard.

A lot of the signage features great modern fonts and repetition of the square motif, such as this by the entrance of the Inventor room.

The Tinkerer exhibit comes from San Francisco, and features a wide variety of interactive pieces.

One example is this take-off on the pinball machine, featuring balls that roll down a surface covered with bells that can be repositioned by the user to make difference sequences of tones.

Another example is this walk-in shadow box, featuring video cameras and reactive wall surfaces that allow you to paint with light using flashlights and other items.

Back out in the main hall are small exhibits on a variety of subjects, such as this one describing the evolution of the camera.

Down the main hall is the dinosaur section, the centerpiece of which is a towering skeleton of a Paluxysaurus.

A series of exhibits here informs about the work of paleontologists, and features displays of their tools. And at this point we can’t help but include another video from They Might Be Giants, featuring Danny Weinkauf:

I Am a Paleontologist – They Might Be Giants with Danny Weinkauf from They Might Be Giants on Vimeo.

Next to the dinosaur exhibit is XTO Energy’s “Energy Blast,” telling the story of energy from the past to the future. While yes, there is a prominent natural gas segment, there are also entries about wind, solar, and other forms.

The Energy Blast exhibit follows a winding path, starting with a walk through the bottom of the ocean and winding up with wind turbines and solar collectors.

This part of the building looks out onto a courtyard where the long-running Dino Dig feature has been installed.

One of the highlights of Energy Blast is a large model railroad-style installation featuring the Fort Worth skyline with various kinds of energy production. Here, the Pier One Tower serves as a backdrop for a solar power plant.

Part of Energy Blast is housed in the dramatic cantilevered exhibit space on the building’s front elevation.

Inside is a recreation of a gas drilling site, complete with drilling rig, control cab, and giant drilling machinery.

Leading away from the Energy Blast/dinosaur area, this hallway features an aviation theme and looks out over another courtyard as it leads up to the Omni Theater.

The remodeled and upgraded Omni Theater forms one wall of this courtyard, which features a large dinosaur topiary…

…and yes, the beloved giant chrome turtle who stood in front of the old museum has found a home in this courtyard as well.

This courtyard also features the entrance to the Museum School.

The Museum School lobby features the same yellow beams as in the main hallway’s “spine.”

All the classrooms are arrayed around a central courtyard and feature walls of glass looking into it.

They’re a bit hard to photograph, but the classrooms also feature these big triangular clerestory windows.

The museum’s doors feature a subtle repetition of the square motif in their wood.

Hallways in the Museum School feature items used by the school on display from the collection.

On the other side of the ground floor is the museum’s cafe. This features a large indoor eating area and an outdoor patio, all looking out towards the Will Rogers Memorial Center, the Cowgirl Museum, and the direction of Downtown.

This corner segment of the cafe features a series of zigzagging windows.

Here, we’re looking out onto the patio.

The cafe’s patio at night. The glowing dome of the new Noble Planetarium can be seen above. Speaking of which, let’s head upstairs and check out the planetarium.

The Noble is accessed from the second floor, looking out over the main lobby.

The museum gave us a private show of the new Noble’s capabilities, and we were able to take some photos. The new Noble is a radical upgrade over its predecessor, and features one of the first Zeiss Powerdome systems in the country, combining a powerful projector with 3D graphics and a fiber-optic starfield system into one unit. The system is able to pull in live views of solar system bodies, display complex 3D objects like the Earths’ magnetic field, and track and display satellites and the International Space Station.

Here, we’re flying in close to Saturn, rendered in bold 3D graphics.

This shot catches the moments as we switched from the detailed rendering of the moon to a view of Earth’s magnetic field.

We’re now flying through the Earth’s magnetic field – which is no mere static image, but a complex and active 3D shape.

Now, we’re in orbit around Jupiter. One of its Galilean moons was behind our heads on the opposite part of the screen in this shot, so it’s casting a shadow onto the planet.

This doesn’t come across as much in the photo, but here we’re looking at the system’s extremely precise fiber-optic starfield component.

After the show, they brought up the lights and gave us a parting shot of the Zeiss Powerdome system. And what the hey, here’s another TMBG video that ties in (we feel musical today):

TMBG – Why Does the Sun Shine? (The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas) from They Might Be Giants on Vimeo.

There were several exhibits on the second floor – the Cattle Raiser’s Museum, CSI: The Experience, etc. – and we didn’t get the chance to look through them all, but we did get a look into one that was very cool and bodes well for the museum’s future balance of topics.

If you were disappointed by the Museum of Science and History in the last several years for doing very few exhibits of history, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the exhibition on display in the new building.

In an exhibit that seems tailor-made for fans of Fort Worthology, the museum has an exhibition of Fort Worth history themed around the old streetcar system. It’s wonderful.

There’s a giant-sized version of the old 1920s streetcar map.

There are several interesting pieces of local history, such as this trophy presented to TCU from the Sanger Brothers Department Store…

…and this segment talking about Camp Bowie in World War I. Yes, there’s actually Fort Worth history on display that isn’t about cowboys!

One of the centerpieces of this exhibit is this large streetcar recreation.

Inside, you’ll find the setting of a vintage streetcar.

A large projection wall takes you on a streetcar ride through Fort Worth’s past, using images of vintage postcards. It’s a very fun exhibit.

The Interurban gets its due as well – there’s even a model Interurban setup.

The exhibit ties back into the present and future, as there are displays about the modern streetcar project as well. We have a feeling that the readers of Fort Worthology will especially enjoy this exhibit!

We didn’t get to cover everything, but we hope you enjoyed this sneak peek inside the new Museum of Science and History. We hope you’ll visit it once it opens to the public tomorrow – it really is an impressive piece of architecture, and it’s about time the Museum of Science and History got a building on the level of its siblings across Lancaster.

For more information, visit the museum’s web site at fortworthmuseum.org. Now, here are a few more photos we took of the new museum building.