Minot features are to be incorporated into the activity areas within the 22,000 square foot center, which will begin construction on a hill just south of the Minot airport once adequate funds are raised. The project has surpassed 60% of its $7 million goal, children’ museum board president Mark Lyman said. Ground breaking will occur once the project has raised 75 to 80 percent of the goal, said Lyman, who projected a grand opening in about two years.

Ackerman-Estvold, led by project architect Paul Breiner, is doing the building design. Chicago-area’s MindSplash and POW! from Long Island, New York, are designing the exhibits.

Paul Orselli, chief instigator with POW!, described a 35-foot climbing structure with a B-52 at the top that will be seen through the multi-story glassed-in atrium.

“This will be literally the centerpiece conceptually and physically of the new Magic City Discovery Center,” he said. “It is framed along themes that are reflective of Minot. So you start at the bottom with things related to the ground and the underground. You move up onto structures that are built on the earth – things like trestles or oil derricks.”

A sketch shows the concept for climbing apparatus to be constructed for the proposed Magic City Discovery Center.

He said there will be three floors in the new building, each with different exhibit galleries.

Becky Lindsay, MindSplash creative director, described features of the main floor’s Spark!Lab, Math and Patterns, Air Forces and Playscapes exhibits. Possible options are a tennis ball launcher, homemade bottle rockets, paper airplane launch, a flight tunnel for testing, origami and a Mr. Potato Head house that teaches coding. There will be a Whoosh, similar to one that existed in the temporary museum but much larger.

“It will be very complex,” Lindsay said. “Things in these galleries will be wonderful for very small kids but also wonderful for the adults.”

Spark!Lab is a Smithsonian partnership and a place where visitors become inventors.

“The exciting thing is what the kids are going to do,” Lindsay said. “Kids are really using their brains and really figuring things out.”

“It will link wonderfully with schools,” Lindsay said. “Everything we are planning is linked to the standards. We have listened to and talked to the schools to see what they need, and I think many schools will come to the museum for the Spark!Lab.”

Robin Frisch, MindSplash experience director, described exhibits with replica camping areas, fields and farms and winter sports. There will be a cozy cabin for infants and toddlers, and a climber and balls and ramps for the youngest visitors.

The second floor will be devoted to music, a digital playground and building and move exhibits. The digital exhibit will be immersive and full-body.

“We don’t want people sitting down in front of a screen,” Orselli said. “This is a different way to think about digital technology.”

The move exhibit will have pulleys and allow visitors to build rollercoasters.

The museum’s lower level will focus on water, light and creativity. Lindsay described how art will combine with science. There will be a paint wall, an animation studio, print-making and textile experimentation.

“Creativity is something that’s really important to the future of our world. This is the best way to have kids start out learning to think and imagine,” Lindsay said.

The lower level will have an extensive water gallery with whirlpools and a morphable stream. Another experience will enable kids to create their own aurora borealis.

They will be exhibits for all ages and abilities so it will be an experience for the entire community, Orselli said.

“This is not a blueprint. This is not the final version. We are happy to get feedback,” Orselli said. “This Magic City Discovery Center will be an incredible resource,” he added. “Your new Magic City Discovery Center will not only be an amazing museum in Minot, it will be an amazing museum anywhere.”