Museum Expansion Project

Officials from the Museum of Nature & Science today announced that fundraising efforts for the new Victory Park facility have topped the $100 million mark with a $50 million gift made by the Perot children in honor of their parents, Margot and H. Ross Perot.

The Victory Park facility, which will supplement the existing Fair Park facilities to address the growing demand for math and science education, will be named the Perot Museum of Nature & Science. The Museum expects to break ground on the new facility in late 2009.

The Perots’ gift is the largest ever made to the Museum of Nature & Science and is believed to be one of the single-largest cash gifts to a Dallas museum.

Mr. and Mrs. H. Ross Perot and their five children – Katherine Perot, Carolyn Perot Rathjen, Suzanne Perot McGee, Nancy Perot Mulford and Ross Perot, Jr. – were joined today by Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert, Museum leadership and other guests at the W – Dallas Victory Hotel for today’s announcement.

Including the Perot Family’s gift, the Museum has now secured nearly $106 million in capital towards its current goal of $155 million for the project, which includes the site acquisition, exhibition planning and design, construction of the new building, education programs and an endowment. Other major lead gifts for the new facility have included $10 million from Hunt Petroleum, $10 million from the Hoglund Foundation and Family, $10 million from The Rees-Jones Foundation, $10 million from T. Boone Pickens, and $2.5 million from the Corrigan Family.

To donate to the Museum of Nature & Science, please contact Anne Haskel at 972-201-0591 or ahaskel@natureandscience.org.

The Museum of Nature & Science will be located on a 4.7-acre site at the northwest corner of Woodall Rodgers Freeway and Field Street adjacent to Victory Park. 

The facility will be walking distance from the American Airlines Center, W – Dallas Victory Hotel, and House of Blues, and just minutes from the Dallas Arts District, the largest urban cultural district in the country; the Sixth Floor Museum; the Trinity River Corridor Project; and intown districts such as Uptown and Turtle Creek.

Visitors will have easy access to the Museum by riding DART light rail trains to Victory Station at the American Airlines Center; by traveling on any of the nearby roads, including Interstate 35E, Central Expressway and the North Dallas Tollway; or by using the Katy Trail pedestrian/bicycle paths.

The land has been purchased, and groundbreaking is projected to take place in 2009. 

The land has been purchased, and groundbreaking will take place in late 2009. Upon completion, the Museum of Nature & Science is expected to emerge as one of the region’s top destinations, attracting more than 1 million visitors annually.

In January, the Museum named 2005 Pritzker Prize Laureate Thom Mayne of Morphosis as the architect for its new facility. Mayne is the first American in 17 years (since 1991) to be selected for architecture’s most prestigious award, the Pritzker Prize. This achievement capped a three-decade career in which Mayne has received more than 100 awards and honors from across the world.

Ralph Appelbaum Associates (RAA), the world’s largest and most renowned museum interpretative design firm, has completed Phase I of the exhibition interpretive plan for the interior spaces within the Victory Park facility. The goal of the new exhibition spaces is to create one-of-a-kind experiences using hands-on activities, collections and the latest in technological advances to communicate the wonders of nature and science.

The Museum is the result of a 2006 merger, unlike any in the nation, of three cultural institutions – the Dallas Museum of Natural History (est. 1936), The Science Place (est. 1946) and the Dallas Children’s Museum (est. 1995). According to the City of Dallas’ Office of Cultural Affairs, the Museum of Nature & Science was the most visited museum in Dallas in 2007 having sold almost 1 million tickets. Over the past year, the Museum has invested nearly $1 million into its Fair Park facilities to update and rebuild the following permanent exhibit areas: Children’s Museum, Dinosaurs and Life Sciences (currently in progress) Halls. In FY 2007, more than 327,000 schoolchildren were served. During the past five years, the Museum has provided approximately $500,000 in scholarships to at-risk students.

For more information about the Museum of Nature & Science, go to www.natureandscience.org or call 214-428-5555.