Exploration Place’s future: ‘I’m pinching myself now because it’s really happening.’

You know those big, electronic monument signs that display photos, videos and graphics to advertise businesses at their entrances?

Well, Exploration Place president and CEO Adam Smith decided on something else to announce the new 6 1/2-acre playground coming to the Riverside attraction — the one that’s being modeled after Tulsa’s successful Gathering Place.

“I don’t need to spend a quarter million dollars on an electric sign,” Smith said.

Instead, there’s a bright yellow rocket to let potential visitors “know there’s something really interesting going there.”

Without even knowing it, Smith also tapped into a piece of nostalgia for native Wichitans who grew up with the Riverside Park rocket, the one made of metal that burned their legs as they climbed on it as children, but also the one they fought to save when the city was going to take it out.

The rocket is still in the park, though no one is allowed up it anymore.

When the new rocket was installed at Exploration Place — it’s still waiting on its slide, and it won’t be available for guests to play on until next year — Smith wasn’t prepared for the hundreds, literally, of comments he’d get about it.

“As soon as people from Wichita saw this rocket, they started getting misty eyed and nostalgic,” he said.

It almost was a hot air balloon instead, but this area is now a playground called Textron Aviation Flight Adventure that also includes a Cessna Citation Longitude jet and a Beech Staggerwing, a 1930s biplane.

It’s one of 10 playgrounds within the overall playground, which is being called Destination Playscape for now but likely will get a new name next year as it gets closer to opening in March.

Smith and a steering committee at the children’s science center and museum have raised $25 million of the $27 million they need to finish the project (check out https://thehomestretch.org/ for details).

“As the community’s starting to see,” he said, “we’re in fairly serious construction.”

Looking outdoors

In early 2021 when the pandemic was still underway, the board at Exploration Place decided it was the right time to start focusing on its outdoor spaces.

First came the Wichita Foundation Amphitheater, an open-air, 1,500-capacity venue that opened last fall.

Smith said the “amazing attendance” has inspired everyone to keep going on the outdoor areas.

The amphitheater is 10% of the development, and the rest of the playground areas under construction now comprise the remaining 90%.

Along with the “great vibe” Smith said the amphitheater has created with its RiverFlix movie series and food trucks, he’s learned that “people want to be out in Wichita, you know?”

The goal, he said, is to “just take the whole idea of play to the next level.”

“What could a playground be if it were a true destination?”

Smith said Exploration Place next year will begin advertising on a regional level, a first for the museum because he sees the outdoor area helping make it more of a destination draw.

Projections are Exploration Place will grow its attendance from just over 400,000 people a year to one million annually and grow its economic impact for the area — for hotels, restaurants, bars and shops — from $21 million to $66.7 million annually.

He said companies looking to attract workforce talent can benefit, too, with a new destination for families.

“We’re bringing a powerful amenity.”

Along with offering a lot of fun, Exploration Place is touting that the playground offers STEM education learning as well.

Playground destinations are starting to pop up around the country.

“I think there’s going to be hundreds of these built,” Smith said. “I’m really happy we’ve been able to get the community behind this one in Wichita.”

Fun, fun, fun

So what all will these playgrounds include?

The list is lengthy.

First there’s the aforementioned Textron playground.

“This sponsorship represents our dedication to the city of Wichita and our belief in the power of inspiring the next generation of innovators,” said Textron Aviation president and CEO Ron Draper in a statement on the Exploration Place website.

“By supporting this signature play area, we aim to deepen interest in science and technology while paying tribute to the generations of people in our community who have contributed to Cessna and Beechcraft’s rich heritage and legendary accomplishments.”

There’s also the Junior League of Wichita Water Play Cascades that the league is sponsoring in celebration of its 100th anniversary in Wichita.

Instead of simply being a playful, fun time in the water, these waterfalls and water jets promote collaboration to work some of its water wheels and pumps with both children and adults contributing.

Smith said as much as he’s indebted to the Gathering Place for sharing what it has learned over time, he thinks Exploration Place’s water feature is one area where it tops the Tulsa attraction.

Then there’s the Sunflower Meadow, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Wichita, which Smith said is a year-round exploration of the lifecycle of a sunflower.

He said that “24-7, 365, there will be sunflowers in Kansas.”

This is designed for small children who can play on bee bouncers, balance logs and flower spinners as a way to have fun and discover more about nature.

Smith said the underlying theme of the playgrounds refers to Kansas in general, including its agricultural heritage, and Wichita in specific with aviation.

There will be a two-story bison that includes a slide, a Foggy Flint Hills area, a zip line over a prairie, a sensory garden and a treetop climbing area among other things. Look for more information on each of these areas closer to the playground’s debut.

Another win

The mere opening of the $62 million Exploration Place was a major win for Wichita in 2000.

Even world-renowned architect Moshe Safdie —who is known for remarkable buildings such as Singapore’s Jewel Changi Airport and its Marina Bay Sands development, Brazil’s Albert Einstein Education and Research Center and Israel’s Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center — called it “a seminal project for our practice in many ways.”

In a 2020 interview on Exploration Place’s 20th anniversary, Safdie explained that he committed “extraordinary energy in developing a concept” of a geometric pattern in the shape of a torus — think the shape of a doughnut — for the building’s silhouette.

The roof shape and structure was purposefully geometric, Safdie said. “I thought it should have that sense of the scientific.”

He said the Exploration Place project was ambitious for the committee that created it and a breakthrough for him with the toroids he incorporated.

“That idea was very powerful. In fact, it was an idea that went on to be applied to other projects as a methodology.”

Since then, Exploration Place has had a number of triumphs — including a transformation of its aviation gallery, the institution of traveling shows with the Titanic exhibit, drone shows and continuing education outreach to schools — but there has been nothing of the magnitude of what’s being undertaken now with the playgrounds.

Stepping up

Through the project, Smith said he’s learned that “there is something about this community that is more skeptical than other communities that I’ve worked in.”

Still, he said that “pretty much everybody has stepped up,” and he said he can’t be more appreciative.

“I’ve got to say, I’m pinching myself now because it’s really happening.”

There’s now new pricing for the attraction but, perhaps surprisingly, it won’t cost more to enter.

Smith said there’s now one price for all the attractions.

For adults, which is ages 12-64, it’s $20.

For seniors, ages 65 and older, and children, ages 3 to 11, it’s $15.

Children 2 and under are free along with members and SNAP/EBT recipients. School field trips also are free for Title 1 schools.

Also, the Wichita library system has a membership card that people can check out from any of its libraries on a one-time basis to visit Exploration Place for free.

There will be some testing of the new playground attractions in the first couple months of the year, but Smith said he doesn’t want to open in the dead of winter.

Sometime around Spring Break in March will be the official opening.

Though the project already has had some attention, Smith said he’s been deliberate about not saying too much yet.

However, he liked when a reporter called to discuss the rocket.

“I’m glad it caught your attention because that was the plan.”

He said the rocket is “very cleverly designed,” and — unlike the Riverside Park rocket — no one can fall more than about 18 inches.

“Obviously, safety’s a huge consideration.”

He said accessibility is, too. Exploration Place hired an accessibility consultant, who uses a wheelchair herself and gave recommendations for how to make the playgrounds open to everyone.

On a development this massive, Smith said, it would be easy to settle for about 80% of what everyone hoped to achieve, because it would still be a huge addition to the community.

However, he said one person wouldn’t let him even begin to think that way.

Of all the people helping him do so much with the playgrounds, Smith said Greater Wichita Partnership president Jeff Fluhr has been especially key “just helping me to set the standard really high” and then achieve it.

“We want to be the best in the world,” Smith said. “We haven’t settled.”