Exploration Place to transform its 20-acre campus with amphitheater and adventureland

The coronavirus pandemic has clouded almost all of Adam Smith’s two-and-a-half-year tenure as Exploration Place president.

However, he said the old adage is true: “Every cloud has a silver lining.”

That silver lining is the six pandemic months that Smith worked with the nonprofit’s board to create a five-year strategic plan to transform Exploration Place’s 20-acre campus, which extends on a long, thin site from the Keeper of the Plains bridge to the First Street bridge.

“This whole sort of theme of the riverside and the 20-acre property that we occupy, it really just sort of came screaming out of that strategic plan,” Smith said. “We’ve got this really awesome site on the river. We haven’t maybe used it as much as we could have done.”

He said that is not a criticism of anyone. Development necessarily goes in phases, Smith said, and he said now is the right time to turn outdoors.

Ideally, the first phase of development will be an amphitheater area on the northwest side of the campus overlooking the Keeper of the Plains. If a grant comes through, it could be built by next year.

Further into the five years, Smith is planning something of a Wichita version of the Gathering Place, the popular riverfront park in Tulsa that features all kinds of outdoor activities that attract residents and tourists.

There are a lot of financial hurdles to surmount, but Exploration Place already has a number of things working in its favor.

According to a pedestrian survey conducted by the Wichita Area Metropolitan Planning Organization last year, the riverfront path by Exploration Place is by far the most pedestrian-trafficked area in Wichita.

“How much more could we do if we start to program it?” Smith said.

Exploration Place counts how many people visit its building each year — an average of 250,000 pre-COVID — but it relies on Visit Wichita geofencing and analytics to show how many people come on its property.

Last year, 221,000 people spent at least 15 minutes on the campus without coming into the building.

“That’s like, whoa, that’s a lot of people,” Smith said.

That’s wildly different than when Exploration Place opened in 2000.

People who have worked at Exploration Place since its beginning tell Smith that originally, no one used the riverside path.

Smith said there are still negative feelings toward the Arkansas River.

“It’s really got my attention how Wichita seems to think about the river.”

He said he hears people say it’s dirty or smelly or they talk it down in other ways, which has baffled him.

“It was just unusual,” Smith said.

“I 100% believe it’s an asset. . . . The only question is what are we going to do with the asset?”

Maximizing the riverfront first came up during Smith’s job interview.

Then last year during the strategic planning process, Smith sat in on interviews with people — educators, business people, politicians — who were “clearly encouraging me to seize an opportunity they think we’ve got.”

So even though some still knock the river, he said, “There’s also a lot of people really hungry to do something. They see the opportunity.”

First phase: Staging an experience

For the first phase of outdoor development, Exploration Place has applied to the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Travel, Tourism & Outdoor Recreation program for a $1.255 million grant, which would focus on the northwest side of the property.

In addition to beautifying that space, Smith wants to build a small amphitheater that could accommodate events of up to about 1,200 people.

“So imagine something that is built into the river bank and will be strategically positioned to overlook the Keeper,” he said.

People are already coming in droves to watch the Keeper’s nightly fire show. Smith said the idea is “just to sort of stage that experience a little bit.”

He said he envisions a multipurpose event facility for music, movies or weddings.

It would not be a big stage. Smith said it’s more about the environment. He envisions creating a natural bowl in the river bank where people can sit with what he calls a million-dollar view.

“It’s going to be an amazing view across the water.”

Because part of this area is in a floodplain, Exploration Place had to file a public notice of its grant application and plans for an amphitheater.

Though the part of the notice about how “The project has been designed to minimize the risks of loss of life and property to flood and storm damage” is a bit jolting, Smith said his understanding is the floodplain isn’t actually an issue.

If the project were to go on the river side of the riverfront path instead of where it will be located, he said, “Then I would have a lot . . . of sort of technical hoops to jump through.”

Second phase: A playground adventure

For Exploration Place’s next outdoor phase, on the east side of its property, it’s easy for Smith to point to Tulsa’s Gathering Place for comparison purposes.

“It’s amazing what they’ve done, and I want to do something like that for Wichita.”

However, the Gathering Place is hardly the only place he’s looking for inspiration. Smith is looking worldwide, particularly at communities with rivers, for ideas on how to bring the Exploration Place grounds to life.

It happens that the six acres on the southeast side of Exploration Place are almost identical in size to the Gathering Place’s Chapman Adventure Playground, which Smith said is the most popular part of the larger park.

Smith said he reached out to every major manufacturer of high-end adventure play equipment and invited proposals from all of them. He’s now assessing 10 submissions and trying to form a vision.

“We’ll find our own unique spin on it from a design point of view.”

He said that could mean an aviation theme or something that interprets Kansas agriculture or Native American culture.

“We would want to lean into themes that mean something to us and our community and what it means to be part of Wichita,” Smith said.

It would be a permanent installation to draw people every day, which Smith is good for the community and tourism, too.

Not to be fazed: Building consensus

Smith said he’s learned that different communities have different vibes. For instance, in Dallas where he worked, he said, “Just go big or go home,” was the attitude.

He said Wichita is not that kind of community.

Smith said he wants to build momentum and consensus and get people comfortable with new plans.

He also has to be careful to keep architect Moshe Safdie’s original vision for the property. Even before Smith arrived at Exploration Place, the nonprofit had already requested a set of guidelines from Safdie’s office to ensure future plans don’t conflict with his vision.

There are certain places where nothing will be built because it would obstruct views.

Smith said the way the outside space was laid out was almost to isolate Exploration Place’s building with banks and berms, particularly on the east side of the property.

He said there’s already a nice park with play equipment, “But I reckon a solid 95% of people who come here don’t even know it’s there.”

When asked if Safdie could be involved with any of the outdoor plans, Smith said it’s a bit early to ask who the designer might be.

He said the interviews conducted for the five-year plan helped to validate Exploration Place’s new direction and steer it away from mistakes. The online survey that was sent to 5,000 people — about 500 of whom responded — asked them to rank a dozen potential features they’d like to see in a riverfront park.

An adventure playground was No. 1 followed by science exhibits, a walking trail, concerts and some sort of food element, which could be a restaurant or food trucks.

The investigative phase: What’s possible?

Exploration Place already has held a number of outdoor events through the years.

“It’s been on a case-by-case event basis,” Smith said.

There have been movies, an eclipse-watching party, a recent crawfish boil and community walks and runs staged from there.

“Very consciously last summer we started doing music on the waterfront,” Smith said. “We’ve been sort of testing this sort of hunch that we’ve got that we’ve got a valuable space.”

Food Truck Thursdays have been especially popular, with one night drawing 900 people.

“It was sort of validating in a sense,” Smith said.

“If I’m trying to change anything, it’s actually to make it less of an event and to make it more of a permanent state of mind.”

He’s taking a leap with upcoming drone shows, which will be similar to a fireworks display except there will be 200 synchronized drones creating pictures in the sky.

“Anyone within five miles is going to be able to see it,” Smith said.

Exploration Place will create more of a premium experience for people who come there to see it with a sound system.

With the drone shows, Smith said, he and his staff realized the main thing they’re managing is parking capacity. They’re selling access on a per-car basis because there are only 580 parking spaces.

He said he and his staff are learning to manage new events as they go. The drone show is stepping out of a comfort zone as an organization, he said, and that’s led to some sleepless nights for him.

“Sometimes you’ve got to take a bit of a risk and put it out there,” Smith said.

“It’s almost an investigative phase,” he said. “We’re building a momentum. We’re building an understanding of programming.”

If early reaction to the June 4 and 5 drone shows is any indication, Smith thinks people approve.

“The sort of groundswell that I’m feeling is, ‘We love this.’ ”

Smith said that “it’s really cool we can be one of the first cities to do it.”

“It gives me sort of the confidence and belief . . . just don’t give up. . . . Look for a way.”

So even if the grant doesn’t come through, Smith said he’ll keep investigating how to activate the outdoor spaces.

“I’m really convinced that it’s just sort of the time to go after it.”

This story was originally published May 23, 2022 at 4:47 AM.