Brooklyn museum expansion: $39 million.

Founded in 1899, Brooklyn Children's Museum, the world's first museum created expressly for children, broke ground on October 16 for the major expansion of its building in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

Dignitaries, including Federal, State, and City legislators, joined community members, friends, school children, Brooklyn Children's Museum Board of Trustees Chair Paul Gangsei and President Carol Enseki in the ceremonial groundbreaking to mark the beginning of the construction project to be completed in mid-2006.

The new building features a bold design by internationally acclaimed architect, Rafael Vinoly. The $39 million expansion will double the Museum's capacity and size, and is slated to be the country's first "green" children's museum--environmentally advanced, using sustainable, renewable and or recyclable material and systems.

"This is going to be a signature building for an institution that has made significant contributions to the architecture of New York City for many years," says Kate Levin, Commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs.

In addition to conserving precious natural resources--and saving the City of New York, which owns the building in which the Museum is housed, an estimated $103,000 annually on energy costs--the "green" features will from the basis of innovative new programs and exhibits and provide children with hands-on learning opportunities about environmental issues.

In the past year, geo-thermal test wells were successfully dug on the grounds of the Museum--which means that the Museum will be able to install a geothermal heating and cooling system--the first of its kind in a New York City cultural institution, which will use water-to-water heat pumps and six 300-foot-deep wells to heat and cool the building.

The expansion will significantly enhance the street presence of the largely subterranean Brooklyn Children's Museum. Fusing the old and new parts of the building with 3,000 square feet of renovated space, the design will add just over 51,000 square feet to the nearly 51,000 square feet the Museum currently occupies. Importantly, it will enable the Museum to greatly expand the number of visitors it serves annually--from its current capacity of 250,000 to 400,000.

Last year, the building's daffodil-yellow design was unveiled on December 11, at the offices of Rafael Vinoly Architects P.C. in Manhattan, and received local and national attention and rave reviews. In July 2003, the Art Commission of the City of New York and Mayor Michael Bloomberg recognized the Brooklyn Children's Museum expansion design with the Annual Art Commission Award for Design Excellence.

Rafael Vinoly has created sophisticated, modern designs for public institutions, cultural organizations, and corporations in places as disparate as Cairo and Queens, Buenos Aires and the Bronx. Mr. Vinoly's design gives the Brooklyn Children's Museum a bold, undulating facade of daffodil yellow and porthole-like windows that will emit a soft glow at night. In the Museum's design, he uses glass walls on the first floor to make the upper story appear suspended in space. The upper floor of the Museum's new L-shaped building--mostly new exhibit space--will be cantilevered above the ground floor, sheltering the lower floor from direct sunlight while still allowing people inside to see the surrounding neighborhood and Brower Park.

The Museum's original home was the Victoria era Adams Mansion located in Brower Park. It was later supplemented by the Smith House, which was on the site of the Museum's present location at 145 Brooklyn Avenue. The Museum built its current, award-winning home in 1977. The innovative structure--largely located below ground level--was designed by Hardy Holzman and Pfeiffer Associates. The subterranean structure will remain part of the Museum's signature, as will the unique "stream" running through the building. The new construction will be fully integrated with the Museum's present building through a series of light-filled corridors, staircases, and wheelchair-accessible ramps.

Gangsei said, "The two New York City agencies overseeing our project, the Department of Cultural Affairs and the Department of Design and Construction, have been outstanding partners in making this expansion possible."

All levels of government have invested substantial capital support to the project, including: lead funding from the City of New York, through the offices of the Mayor; the City Council and its Brooklyn delegation; and the Brooklyn Borough President; the State of New York from the Governor, Empire State Development Corporation; and the New York State Assembly; and from the Institute of Museum and Library Services through an appropriation by the U.S. House of Representatives.

Generous private contributions support capital and program planning. The Charles Hayden Foundation, The Louis Calder Foundation, Independence Community Foundation, J.P. Morgan Chase, the Booth Ferris Foundation, Morgan Stanley, the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, and numerous individuals have all contributed funds for this vital expansion.