The Perot Museum of Nature and Science (shortened to Perot Museum) is a natural history and science museum located in Dallas, Texas. It consists of two campuses: the primary campus located in Victory Park, and a secondary campus in Fair Park. The Victory Park campus museum was named in honor of Margot and Ross Perot. The current chief executive officer of the museum is Dr. Linda Abraham-Silver.
Background
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History
- June 6, 1936 â€" Dallas Museum of Natural History was opened to the public as part of the 1936 Texas Centennial Exhibition.
- September 20, 1946 â€" Dallas Health Museum was founded by a group chartered as the Dallas Academy of Medicine. The Dallas Health Museum was renamed as the Dallas Health and Science Museum in 1958. It was later renamed to the Science Place in 1981.
- 1995 â€" Dallas Children's Museum was founded.
In 2006, museum CEO Nicole Small oversaw the uniting of the Dallas Museum of Natural History and the Science Place and the Dallas Children's Museum at Fair Park. Following the merger, the museum was located in three buildings in Fair Park, featuring an IMAX-style theater, a fully functioning planetarium, an extensive exhibit hall, and its own on-site paleontology lab.
On June 1, 2014 the Perot Museum of Nature and Science welcomed a new CEO, Colleen Walker.
The museum was relocated on December 1, 2012 to a new facility in Victory Park. The former Science Place Building and Planetarium were closed, with the building for the former Dallas Museum of Natural History converted into a second campus for the Perot Museum.
Donation and Endowment
The Victory Park campus museum was named in honor of Margot and Ross Perot as the result of a $50-million gift made by their adult children â€" Ross Perot, Jr.; Nancy Perot Mulford; Suzanne Perot McGee; Carolyn Perot Rathjen; and Katherine Perot Reeves. The $185-million fundraising goal â€" which provided for the site acquisition, exhibition planning and design, construction of the new building, education programs and an endowment was achieved by November 2011, more than a year before the museum's scheduled opening in December 2012. The donated funds enabled the museum to be built without incurring any debt or public funding.
Victory Park campus
The 180,000 square feet facility has 6 floors and stands about 14 stories high. It has five floors which are accessible to the public and houses 11 permanent exhibit halls as well as 6 learning labs. The top-most floor houses the museum's administration offices. The Victory Park campus opened its doors to the public on December 1, 2012. Approximately 6,000 visitors came to the museum on its first day of operation.
Building design
Designed by 2005 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate Thom Mayne and his firm Morphosis Architects, the building was conceived as a large cube floating over a landscaped plinth (or base) and is designed to inspire awareness of science through an immersive and interactive environment. It has a stone roof which features a landscape of drought-tolerant greenery inspired by Dallas surroundings. The building's design was conceived in collaboration with Dallas-based landscape architects, Talley Associates, the plinth is landscaped with a 1-acre rolling green roof consisting of rock and native drought-resistant grasses that reflects Texas' indigenous landscape and demonstrates a living system that will evolve naturally over time. By integrating architecture, nature and technology, the building's design demonstrates scientific principles and is used as a teaching tool that provides living examples of engineering, sustainability and technology at work. Building on the museum's commitment to resource conservation, the new building integrates a variety of sustainable strategies including a rainwater collection system that captures run-off water from the roof and parking lot, satisfying 74% of the museum's non-potable water needs and 100% of its irrigation needs.
The building features a 54-foot continuous flow escalator housed within a 150-foot glass casing that extends diagonally outside the building cube. To maximize sustainability, the building also features LED lighting, off-grid energy generation technology and solar-powered water heating. Skylights were installed to draw natural sunlight to the atrium and to the other spaces.
The building has secured from the Green Building Initiative the highest possible 4 Green Globes. It obtained a rating of an overall 85% on the Green Globes rating scale and 100% for its design and its sustainable performance measures. Green Globes is a nationally recognized green building guidance and assessment program in the United States. The Green Globes rigorous assessment is also the most closely aligned certification to United States federal building requirements. The Green Globes achievement is a rarity in United States building industry where only 12 out of 759 certified buildings have reached a four Globe certification. The Victory Park building was designed and built using green building practices so that it would serve as a model of sustainability.
Permanent exhibit halls
Temporary exhibit halls
The Hoglund Foundation Theater A National Geographic Experience
The 297-seat Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant theater has a 2D, 3D 4K digital projection and sound system. The theater features a variety of films from educational features and documentaries to experimental independent films.
Fair Park campus
The museum at Fair Park features exhibits such as Mineral Majesty, Light Play and historical dioramas. Admission to the former Dallas Museum of Natural History is $1 for non-members and free for members. A ticket to the Perot Museum in Victory Park provides free access to the Fair Park campus.
Educational outreach
The museum creates a Teacher's Guide, which is a booklet and online publication that is distributed to North Texas educators. The guide outlines programming designed for children pre-K to 12th grade in earth and space sciences, life and natural sciences, chemistry, physical sciences and engineering. Programming is designed to reinforce Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) objectives.
There are three educational outreach opportunities: field trips to the museum, onsite programming at schools (in the classroom and after school), and ScienceCast distance-learning programs through videoconferencing.
Field trips
Students can explore 11 permanent exhibit halls, experience educational films in their theater, and take advantage of TEKS-aligned onsite classroom or auditorium programming. Further learning, available through program extensions, is held in the learning labs and auditorium of the museum's Lower Level. The museum also features educational films, offered in partnership with National Geographic.
Onsite programming at schools
Museum educators offer 26 programs that can be taught in schools’ classrooms, presented to large groups in auditoriums, or showcased as part of after-school programming.
Distance-learning video conferencing
ScienceCast distance-learning programs, which the museum created and introduced in 2012 to widespread acclaim, use computer technology to stream live instruction directly to the classroom, allowing students to interact with educators in real time.
See also
- List of nature centers in Texas
- List of museums in North Texas
- Heard Natural Science Museum and Wildlife Sanctuary
- Fort Worth Museum of Science and History
References
External links
- Official Web site of Perot Museum of Nature and Science
- Dallas' Perot Museum designed to fit with Texas-specific public school curriculum
- Perot Museum - Sports Run Exhibit
