My brother and his family live in St. Louis. I live on the East Coast. The first place I want to go when I visit them is the City Museum. My nephew was 3 the first time I visited and his dad and I took him to the City Museum. When I returned a year later, the first thing he said to me was "Can we go to the Science Museum?" After some discussion, it was established that he meant the City Museum. ..which had evidently made quite an impression on him the first time we went. Me too! It is an incredibly content-rich environment. Agreed, much of the content is not explained (although they have added more traditional museum-type displays, including a stunning collection of items dug out of old privies); but everywhere you look, there is something fascinating to think about, because it is constructed out of industrial and architectural leftovers. There's a wall made out of what appear to be breadloaf tins from some giant industrial bakery. There are walls covered in circuit boards. The slides are old commercial freight chutes. On, and on, and on. ..even the rest room is built out of reused and reimagined materials (well, the toilet is standard modern Crane. ..) And there is a truly terrific aquarium housed in the same building, although it is run by a different organization. And a carnival side-show area, and an old shoelace factory. ..You must have gone in the early days, because--without meaning to be unnecessarily offensive--only the incurious could find their curiosity satiated in an hour at the City Museum.
In my second visit we went to the City Museum twice--over two hours for each visit--and yes, we went to the Science Museum once. Lots of interactive exhibits--which only one child at a time could use, so they got monopolized, and were mostly being used in a manner not contemplated by the designers. Bored me nearly to tears, and my nephew was impossible to deal with the whole time. I'll take the City Museum any day! In fact, if I weren't kind of stuck to my current job, I'd seriously consider relocating to St. Louis and moving into one of the lofts that the owners have installed in the City Museum building.
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My brother and his family live in St. Louis. I live on the East Coast. The first place I want to go when I visit them is the City Museum. My nephew was 3 the first time I visited and his dad and I took him to the City Museum. When I returned a year later, the first thing he said to me was "Can we go to the Science Museum?" After some discussion, it was established that he meant the City Museum. . .which had evidently made quite an impression on him the first time we went. Me too! It is an incredibly content-rich environment. Agreed, much of the content is not explained (although they have added more traditional museum-type displays, including a stunning collection of items dug out of old privies); but everywhere you look, there is something fascinating to think about, because it is constructed out of industrial and architectural leftovers. There's a wall made out of what appear to be breadloaf tins from some giant industrial bakery. There are walls covered in circuit boards. The slides are old commercial freight chutes. On, and on, and on. . .even the rest room is built out of reused and reimagined materials (well, the toilet is standard modern Crane. . .) And there is a truly terrific aquarium housed in the same building, although it is run by a different organization. And a carnival side-show area, and an old shoelace factory. . .You must have gone in the early days, because--without meaning to be unnecessarily offensive--only the incurious could find their curiosity satiated in an hour at the City Museum.
In my second visit we went to the City Museum twice--over two hours for each visit--and yes, we went to the Science Museum once. Lots of interactive exhibits--which only one child at a time could use, so they got monopolized, and were mostly being used in a manner not contemplated by the designers. Bored me nearly to tears, and my nephew was impossible to deal with the whole time. I'll take the City Museum any day! In fact, if I weren't kind of stuck to my current job, I'd seriously consider relocating to St. Louis and moving into one of the lofts that the owners have installed in the City Museum building.