Omaha Children’s Museum is working with internationally renowned design firm Snøhetta to create the architecture and landscape of a planned new home along Omaha’s Heartland of America Park at The RiverFront. Other project partners include Roto, an award-winning planning and design-build firm, alongside Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture and Kiewit Building Group.
The Omaha Children’s Museum has been fostering children’s growth and development in the Omaha community for almost 50 years, largely from a facility that was once a car dealership. The new museum would be developed in collaboration with Heritage Omaha, a charity dedicated to creating significant philanthropic projects that enhance the Omaha community, and project champions Susan and Mike Lebens.
The objective is to build a vibrant, purpose-built children’s museum with lots of fun spaces that are influenced by children and their caregivers and shaped by best practices in early child development.
A dynamic new museum
Omaha Children’s Museum CEO Fawn Taylor says this is a chance to create a museum with inclusive exhibits and programming that spark joy, curiosity, and connection:
“Nebraska is home to some of the nation’s leading experts on early childhood development who are working with us to plan for the new museum – from the building to the exhibits to the programming. Their guidance will combine with input from national peer museums, decades of experience from our staff, and feedback from the Omaha community to create a dynamic new Omaha Children’s Museum.”
Longtime Omaha Children’s Museum supporters and volunteers Susan and Mike Lebens will have a role in leading this project: “We spent the past year traveling the United States to visit other great children’s museums and are confident that we can create something incredibly fun and full of learning opportunities that is unlike anything else in the country right now,” says Susan Lebens.
Mike Lebens adds: “We’re proud to play a role in taking what started in 1976 as a children’s museum operating out of a station wagon into its next chapter, ensuring it can serve area children and their caregivers for generations to come.”
Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert joined the Omaha Children’s Museum to make the announcement, which also included plans for a parking garage and a residential project dubbed The Beam from NuStyle Development on the property. According to Mayor Stothert, the initiative would boost downtown’s vitality.
“This entire development fits right in with all the year-round family-friendly activities at the surrounding parks, museums, and entertainment venues downtown,” says Mayor Stothert. “We love that the site has easy access for pedestrians and cyclists and a location directly on the ORBT bus and Omaha Streetcar routes, and we know that the new City of Omaha parking garage will get plenty of use from museum guests, Beam tenants, and everyone visiting downtown.”
The community can help shape the new museum by taking a survey, open until 15 December 2024. Participants can enter to win a one-year Omaha Children’s Museum family membership.
Omaha Children’s Museum will continue to operate at its current location during the fundraising for and construction of the new space, with the goal of transitioning to its new home in late
2027.
Roto recently marked the completion of a new location for the Da Vinci Science Center at PPL Pavilion in Pennsylvania, US. The attraction took three years to design and two years to build. It features over 50 new innovative experiences and four galleries, including a 1,500-square-foot immersive live otter habitat.
