Allentown's Da Vinci Science Center wants to open second science center with aquarium

The increasingly popular Da Vinci Science Center wants to keep its Allentown location and try to build another center, with an aquarium, that would cost more than $100 million.

The second location would be in either Allentown, Bethlehem or Easton, ideally along a river, Da Vinci officials said. The center could announce its pick for a second site as early as this fall.

Da Vinci officials revealed those plans when it held a news conference Monday to announce two new permanent exhibits at the Allentown center. The cost for the exhibits is $350,000, which officials said is its biggest single expenditure on exhibits in its history.

This shows the center is committed to improving its Allentown location while it explores opening a second location in the Lehigh Valley, said Lin Erickson, Da Vinci's executive director and CEO.

Once a site is announced, the center will take a year to explore the feasibility of the project, she said.

The two-story center at Hamilton and Cedar Crest boulevards is "bursting at the seams," Erickson said. Attendance has grown 73 percent over the past five years.

The 29,000-square-foot Allentown center is on land leased from Cedar Crest College. At 1.5 acres, the property offers little room for expansion.

A second center with an aquarium would be much larger, around 150,000 to 175,000 square feet, she said.

Da Vinci officials said this year they were exploring two other options: expanding the Allentown center and moving to one larger site. Monday, Erickson said the center is moving forward with a third option, keeping the facility in Allentown and building a second center.

A second location would be a "major economic development" that would not only serve families in the Lehigh Valley but also draw people from outside the community.

A consultant's report commissioned by Da Vinci last year showed that the building is one-third the size of other science centers and museums serving smaller populations. The report suggests that Da Vinci could draw more than 600,000 people a year if it quadrupled its exhibit space and added an aquarium.

A bigger Lehigh Valley science center would reach more school children and double the roughly 90 minutes people spend at the center now on a typical visit, Erickson has said. It would be more on par with popular science centers in Greensboro, N.C., Des Moines, Iowa, and Dayton, Ohio.

Easton Mayor Sal Panto Jr. said Monday his city's waterfront would be a perfect location for a center and aquarium. He noted that Easton's Crayola Experience already pulls in families from outside the area. And he added that Easton is convenient to the New Jersey and New York markets.

"We are in contention for a second location," Panto said. "There is nothing definitive, but we're continuing to compete. We're going to work hard on this in the next 60 days."

Officials in Allentown and Bethlehem did not immediately return calls for comment Monday.

Bethlehem Mayor Robert Donchez said earlier this year that Da Vinci officials were considering sites on former Bethlehem Steel land. He said Da Vinci would fit with the other family attractions near the SteelStacks campus, which is home to the ArtsQuest Center and the new National Museum of Industrial History.

Founding Da Vinci board member Robert Lovett said this year he would like to see a science center and aquarium built along the Lehigh River in Allentown, with a tie to the America on Wheels museum.

New permanent exhibits

In the meantime, Da Vinci will create two new permanent exhibits in Allentown. It will design a new preschool area anchored by an Engineers On a Roll exhibit, and an interactive energy conservation area. Both will be on the first floor.

Engineers On a Roll is a combination of engineering lab, play scape, and climbing structure that teaches children mathematics and engineering concepts as they drop, bounce and sort colorful balls.

Expected to open in March or April, it will be in a corner of the main exhibit floor where a water table is located. The water table, one of the center's most popular exhibits, will be moved to another location.

The energy conservation area will include a dance floor. Visitors will harvest their own energy by dancing on tiles that use piezoelectric technology. The area also will include a station where visitors can build electric circuits. It will replace the PPL Energy House exhibit and is expected to open early next year.

The new exhibits are sponsored by PPL Corp.; Jim and Irene McLean; John and Denise Jones; the Donald B. and Dorothy L. Stabler Foundation; ATAS International Inc.; Air Products; the Bosch Community Fund; the Sylvia Perkin Charitable Trust; the Robert F. Hunsicker Foundation, and D'Huy Engineering. Funding also came from donations from visitors, as well as from the center's annual fund.