PITTSBURGH — The Carnegie Science Center debuts its long-awaited expansion this weekend.
Pittsburgh's North Shore entertainment and education attraction opens to the public Saturday its new $33 million, 48,000-square-foot PPG Science Pavilion.
For visitors, the pavilion's centerpiece will be the two-level, 14,000-square-foot Scaife Exhibit Gallery.
"This will allow us to bring touring blockbuster exhibits to Pittsburgh, exhibits that currently bypass Pittsburgh," Carnegie Science Center co-director Ann Metzger said Monday at a press event.
The first of those blockbuster exhibits will be ready for visitors Saturday: "The Art of the Brick," the world's largest exhibition of LEGO art.
Heralded by CNN as a “global must-see exhibition,” the collection includes more than 100 creatively constructed sculptures made entirely from LEGO bricks. The artist, Nathan Sawaya, has prepared original pieces, including one inspired by Pittsburgh, plus a 20-foot-long T-Rex dinosaur skeleton and renditions of famed works of art, such as Van Gogh’s "Starry Night" and Da Vinci’s "Mona Lisa."
Running through Aug. 11, "The Art of the Brick" includes a hand's-on play area where kids and adults can create their own LEGO cars to drag race on a slanted track. Or they can build their own LEGO robotic device to pick up ping-pong balls.
There's a separate fee to attend "The Art of the Brick": $19.95 for adults, $17.95 for seniors and $15.95 for children 2 and up. This is in addition to the regular science center admission of $19.95 for adults, $11.95 for children 2 and up, and $14.95 for senior citizens.
Exhibits in the new gallery typically will include an additional fee, science center spokeswoman Connie George said.
The PPG Science Pavilion, funded in part through a $7.5 million gift from the PPG Foundation, also includes the FedEx STEM Learning Labs that will allow the science center to expand its science, technology, engineering and math programs in nine new classrooms. From preschool students to teacher development programs, the STEM Learning Labs look to inspire the future workforce to take an interest in technology. This week, for instance, a class of 10- to 12-year-olds will learn about mobile app design.
The new pavilion also features PointView Hall, a conference and event space with a long outdoor terrace offering a lovely view of the Pittsburgh skyline.
"It's a nice place for visitors to stand outside and take in the view of Pittsburgh," Metzger said. "And may I say, it's an extraordinary view."
PointView Hall will be used for events like conferences, corporate meetings and weddings, with capacity for 600 for a cocktail reception, or 350 for a banquet.
The opening of the PPG Science Pavilion brings a new ground-level entrance to the science center, one connected to the river walkway and providing easier access to the science center's Rangos Giant Cinema.
Also scheduled to be ready within the next two weeks is an outdoor rain garden sourced by rainwater recycled from the center's roof. The garden will provide a practical lesson on stormwater management, science center co-director Ron Baillie said.
"The PPG Science Pavilion will allow us to better serve the community,” Metzger said. “The Science Center already is the No. 1-visited museum in Pittsburgh with 500,000 visitors a year. We expect that number to dramatically increase in the coming years.”
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto said at Monday's press event he had just returned from a conference with other mayors, where there was a buzz about Pittsburgh — "it's viewed as a futuristic town." The PPG Science Pavilion is evidence of that, providing an opportunity for children to learn now about technologies we haven't even thought of yet, he said.
"It's more than a building we're celebrating today," Peduto said. "We're celebrating a community."
The PPG Science Pavilion has brought related science center improvements such as:
Renovation and expansion of the RiverView Cafe.
New high-speed elevators and a staircase with a prominent river view.
Reconfiguration of the main lobby to improve traffic flow.