On Sep. 16, 2022, the city of Phoenix held a General Obligation Bond (GO Bond) Arts and Culture Subcommittee hearing.
The main goal of the meeting was to discuss the upcoming prioritized projects in the downtown Phoenix area.
One of the prioritized projects is the expansion of the Children’s Museum of Phoenix located right in the heart of downtown Phoenix.
Mitch Menchaca, the Executive Director of the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture, gave the presentation to the subcommittee for the Children’s Museum of Phoenix expansion.
“The Children’s Museum of Phoenix Project, again, was to add additional square feet and usable space by completing previously unfinished spaces in the museum. The project will increase exhibit and programming space to expand the operating capacity to serve children and more families,” Menchaca stated.
The original cost of this project neared $1.6 million, according to the Facility Conditions Assessment done by the Public Works Department. This original scope included renovation of 9,000 of the 17,000 unoccupied square feet of the museum, which involves four rooms on the second and third floors of the building. These spaces would serve as new exhibit spaces as well as museum offices.
The revised cost of the project is $5.3 million, and if funded, will renovate all unoccupied 17,000 square feet of space, including a dirt room that was not included in the original plan.
There are also offices on the second and third floor of the building that will be renovated, staff break rooms will be created, restrooms will be added, and extra space will be moved around to make public space usable.
Kate Wells, CEO of the Children’s Museum of Phoenix, spoke on how this space would be used.
“Some of the basement spaces are just kind of a meandering series of spaces of the 11 rooms, that rooms that we are proposing, eight of them would be for public use,” said Wells.
Subcommittee Chair Devney Preuss expressed her amazement on the difference in cost for non public spaces versus public spaces.
“You’re saying it just seems really odd to me that the public spaces would only cost $1.8 million, but the non-public storage spaces and office spaces would be over $3 million. It’s just amazing that it wouldn’t be that much of a difference,” Preuss said.
The subcommittee will have another GO Bond hearing Sep. 30, 2022 focusing on future revitalized projects such as the expansion of the Children’s Museum of Phoenix.
Contact the reporter lkbly@asu.edu
