JULY 2003
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Vital SignsGo to: Thinking Big / Voices, Inc. Thinking BigFlandrau Planners Envision “First of Next Generation” of Science Centers in Downtown Tucsonby Lee Allen
“We have to move, but we also want to move as the campus has grown exponentially over the last 25 years and we’ve become landlocked,” says Executive Director Alexis Faust. While the homegrown planetarium has entertained stargazers and school kids since 1975, the number of annual visitors has dropped over the last decade to about 120,000 per year. “I think eventually we’d die on campus because of the lack of accessibility to get to our small facility that uses outdated equipment for limited offerings. When Rio Nuevo and the inclusion of a Science Center as part of the initiative became a possibility, we viewed it as a nice synergy of bringing science to the community as opposed to the current way of making the community visit the campus for their science fix.”
On the surface, Faust calls the description “a bold statement,” then proceeds to explain why it can work when dreamers think big. “New technologies can take us places we didn’t conceptualize ten years ago, and the science center of the future will go far beyond the buildings themselves. Traditional planetarium shows are great for educating school groups, but when we talk about the first-of-the-next-generation-of-science centers, we’re talking about utilizing new ways of informal education that haven’t been done in the past. Instead of a slide show discussion of a health issue, planetarium domes can now be configured to shrink a person down to the size of a red blood cell and put them through a vein in a human body, taking a trip in and out of a beating heart. That beats a Science 1a lecture.” As one of two dozen members of the Tucson Association of Museums, Flandrau decision-makers want to go beyond the basics and become a bridge to the future. When Science Center planners unveiled their bold concepts two months ago, they featured a bridge theme --- bridging formal and informal learning; bridging art, history and science; bridging local businesses with the University and other schools, and bridging existing neighborhoods and neighbors to become an integrated part of Rio Nuevo. “There can be no doubt that, in many ways, the story of bridge building is the story of civilization. And, by it, we can readily measure an important part of a people’s progress.” --Franklin D. Roosevelt “The bridge idea, from concept to construction, isn’t just rhetoric,” says Faust. “Our plans focus on the 1700-foot-long pedestrian bridge that makes it an adventure to cross the freeway and the Santa Cruz riverbed. The bridge fosters development on both sides of the freeway as well as both parts of Rio Nuevo, it reconnects the city, the east and west sides, and it connects the University with the community in a more understandable and visible way than in the past.” In the architect’s renderings, the bridge is utilized as a connecting mechanism to the Science Center Building while at the same time, acting as a connector between the Cultural Plaza on the west side of the freeway to the Civic Plaza on the eastside. The architecture was conceptualized by Ralph Appelbaum, designer of the Holocaust Memorial Museum and the American Museum of Natural History --- “by general consent, the country’s preeminent exhibition designer,” according to a recent issue of Interiors magazine. The physical layout was designed to make a statement about the Southwest—traditional and, at the same time, pointing toward the future. “Someone in our recent community conference said, ‘if an alien landed in Tucson on this bridge, they ought to know they’re in Tucson,’” Faust says. “It should be distinctly southwestern, reflective of this community and this part of the world.” “Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.” --Goethe The executive director believes she has the right idea. “Admittedly, it’s a difficult time to try and push forward a project of this size, but my argument has always been that you can’t stop planning for the future just because the present is tough,” Faust says. Her enthusiasm is echoed by the recently retired project director John Jones and Assistant City Manager Karen Thoreson, now Acting Project Director of Rio Nuevo. “It’s much more than just a planetarium,” says Jones. “It’s one of the cornerstones of the project.” Thoreson sees the Science Center as an anchor to a wide range of attractions of the entertainment and retail variety. “Together they will act as a magnet to bring folks downtown. No one aspect can do it all, but the center has the strength to bring a diverse group at all times of day and night to use the planetarium, observatory, Science Resource Center, Wellness Center, IMAX Theater and indoor and outdoor exhibits.” Although planners want to make the Science Center unique enough to qualify as a trendsetter for the future, they don’t see themselves as the ‘star’ of downtown development. “We have a concept that has been reviewed in the community with great support for our ideas. The challenge now,” says Faust, “is to size the facility correctly for Tucson. We need to juggle square footage for high-tech exhibits and space for outdoor gardens, finding the right combination that allows a diversity of offerings for the community and doesn’t break the bank in the process. By the end of summer, we should know a feasible number of square feet and exactly how large we will be.” The architectural renderings conceptualize a project that will cost in the neighborhood of $70 million --- and that puts it in an upscale neighborhood. “Seventy million is never a slam dunk,” says Faust. “We’ll be applying to the City for $20 million of that, but that still leaves a hefty bill to be footed by the University. We’ve been charged to implement a cost-recovery program so whatever we develop --- bonding for capital construction or a capital campaign --- the bottom line is that we have to support ourselves.” Faust is a star-gazer and a starry-eyed realist about how attractive such a facility will be. “Take 400,000-plus visitors each year who bring money and business into the local economy. In addition to the price of their admission tickets, they will shop, visit restaurants and visit other attractions. The advantage of having a diverse facility is you have to stay overnight to be able to see it all --- there’s too much to see and do in one day. If we have 3.1 million overnight visitors per year in Tucson and we had multiple events in a vibrant downtown, I’m guessing folks would spend a bit more time --- and money.” In addition to discussions concerning physical layout, there are many behind-the-scenes conversations going on that involve content. “We want the ability to be flexible and to have a constant flow of new, relevant exhibits. Traditional focus has been on astronomy and lunar and planetary science, but in the new facility you’ll find agriculture, engineering, pharmacy, health sciences, nursing, integrative and alternative medicine --- a diversification that provides visitors with a window to what is happening in the world. A good center frequently brings in new exhibits on disparate topics. The Arizona Science Center in Phoenix recently brought in the Titanic exhibit and was very successful with that show. The public is interested in contemporary developments, and if they read about things like the human genome or the radiation of their food, they ought to be able to come here and learn more about those things.” Here’s how the plan proceeds from here: Once the UA Senior Advisory Board has given its approval, a final revised feasibility study will be submitted to the Rio Nuevo Citizens Advisory Committee and the Mayor and Council for study. The proposed plan will get reviewed over the summer months, and by fall will go to the Arizona Board of Regents. Assuming the green light there, the measure will be returned to all parties for a final OK. “We hope to have a shovel in the ground by fall,” says Faust, projecting sometime between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. “I fully hope to be turning over dirt before year end, and if reality meets expectations, I’ll be saying, “Thank you, Santa.” Voices, Inc. “down low”By Ruby Williams
“A lot of the stories we tell are from history. Local history is always forgotten,” says Regina Kelly, Executive Director and one of the founders of Voices. At the beginning of every school year, twenty low-income youth from various schools and locations in Tucson are mentored in research, interviewing, and in-depth writing and photography by three professional artists. The youth each choose a topic or issue that they interest them and are given nine months to complete a fully polished story or photo essay. A topic or issue chosen by a youth is almost never denied publication in the magazine, even if it isn’t related to teenage life. In fact, most of the people who read 110 Degrees are adults. “We’re not writing exclusively to the teenage audience,” Kelly says, “Teenagers are working together with adults to document community stories.” The third issue of 110 Degrees contains a diverse selection of stories from teen parenting, to drug use, to the history of the Fox Theatre. The magazine can be found at independent bookstores such as Antigone and Reader’s Oasis, or by taking a drive past the Broadway Underpass Murals to the Voices office at 116 East Congress, two doors east of the Grill. |
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orced with the alternative to move it or lose it, the Flandrau Science Center and Planetarium on the University of Arizona campus would like to become one of the focal points of the downtown revitalization project.
Categorized as a mutually beneficial partnership between the UA and the city, planetarium planners have undertaken an ambitious agenda. “A modest science center (like we have now) is not likely to be viable,” says UA President Peter Likins. “Our plan is to transform Flandrau into a Rio Nuevo-based science center which will flourish as part of the downtown revitalization project.” So ambitious are the concepts evolving from the drawing board that Marketing and Outreach Director Rob Vugteveen says the new facility should play a creative role in future development, spawning dramatic features and attractions --- “the first of the next generation of science centers.”
nyone who has ever driven downtown has probably seen the fourteen black and white photographs of people that make up the Broadway Underpass Murals. These photographs were taken of people walking down Congress Street from 1937 - 1963. Only a handful of the photos taken over that period were selected for the murals, but over two hundred more are bound in a community archive called Snapped on the Street. 
Snapped on the Street was published in 1999 by Voices, Inc.; a local nonprofit organization, located Downtown, that has been in publishing books and magazines for almost seven years. The most recent of Voices’ publications is the third issue of 110 Degrees magazine – an annual magazine about everyday life in Tucson. Voices hires youth, ages fourteen to twenty-one, to document the untold, local stories of people of all ages, backgrounds and experiences.