Yesterday, RK and I took a study tour of the new Philly Children's Museum - "Please Touch." It used to be a 30,000 square foot building with 15,000 square feet of exhibit space. Now the building (a renovated historic building) is about 100,000 square feet with about 50,000 square feet of exhibit space. Oh yes, and the entrance has a 40 foot Statue of Liberty torch made out of old toys and junk.
I think what struck me about the place (besides its size) was that even though the ceilings are high, floors are all original marble, etc. - it wasn't that noisy. Now, there weren't many kids there when we were there, but it appeared that the acoustics were pretty good. Some of the exhibits I liked best were - Alice in Wonderland special exhibit (complete with maze), water play (A LOT of H2O), carousel, giant piano like in the movie Big, and music area).
Check out some of the pictures. Unfortunately, I didn't like most of it very much - just seemed a little boring! Oh yeah, even though I didn't care for their version of the grocery store, Angelica would appreciate the fact that there was an entire row of cake! Unfortunately, most people bypassed the grocery store and were playing in the McDonald's (yes, McDonald's is a sponsor and has a play store in there). Guess there's no "Healthy RC (or Philly) for them.
Michelle
Having been there, I really wasn't impressed but Please Touch either.
ReplyDeleteThe star of Please Touch is definitely the actual building. It *is* a beautifully restored old building with high ceilings and really ornate columns and details around the mouldings and base boards. But this doesn't make a children's museum.
Actually, for what we want to do at VG, there are probably no lessons to be learned in that nothing from Please Touch could be ported over.
A maze does sound like something children might enjoy, space permitting.
ReplyDeleteThe building looks quite spectacular, but maybe a bit "cold" for young children.
ReplyDeleteI *love* mazes! I went to the Please Touch website looking for a picture of the maze, but it wasn't a very good one. They do seem to have a nice lineup of children's performances like puppet shows and such. Did you happen to see any of that or the performing area?
BTW, I'm just wondering where the customers come from for this large museum, are they city kids or bused in from the burbs?
Having a children's museum in a beautiful historical building seems a little odd to me.
ReplyDeleteRobert - did the keys make sound when you stepped on them? Did you act like Tom Hanks in Big?