The Saint Louis Science Center, founded as a planetarium in 1963, is a collection of buildings including a science museum and planetarium in St. Louis, Missouri, on the southeastern corner of Forest Park. With over 750 exhibits in a complex of over 300,000 square feet (28,000 m2), it is among the largest of its type in the United States.
James S. McDonnell Planetarium
Funding for the first structure of the current campus began in 1955, with $1 million of a $110 million city bond issue specified for the construction of a planetarium. Two years were spent surveying locations. The first proposed site, on the northern side of Forest Park near the Jefferson Memorial Building at Lindell and DeBaliviere, was scrapped because of restrictions on subdivisions. The location was changed to the southern part of the park, on the site of the old mounted police station, which was demolished in 1960. The plan was to build a planetarium, science museum, and natural history museum.
The McDonnell Planetarium is home to a ZEISS UNIVERSARIUM Mark IX Star Projector. Installed in 2001, this machine is one of only three in the United States and thirteen in the world. The unusual request for an “open” planetarium theater called the extremely bright stellar projections, a challenge outstandingly mastered by ZEISS fiber-optic projectors.
Science Center
In 1972, the Museum of Science and Natural History, located in Oak Knoll Park in the St. Louis suburb of Clayton, began to receive funds from sales tax through the Metropolitan Zoological Park and Museum District. In 1983, the museum purchased the Planetarium from the city and closed it for remodeling. On July 20, 1978, the Planetarium reopened as the Saint Louis Science Center. On November 2, 1991, as part of a $34 million expansion, a new building opened across from the Planetarium south of I-64, on Oakland Avenue, increasing the size of the Science Center by a factor of seven. The new building was constructed on land that had previously been the site of the Falstaff Brewing Corporation headquarters. Connected to the Planetarium via a Skybridge over I-64, the new exhibits in the main building were devoted to Earth science, emerging technology, life sciences, physical science, and chemistry. Within two months, the newly remodeled St. Louis Science Center became the most visited science center in the world. A1 Bed Bug Exterminator St. Louis
Restaurants
- Confluence Kombucha is located at 4507 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, MO
- Songbird is located at 4476 Chouteau Ave, St. Louis, MO
- Mac’s Local Eats is located at 5656 Oakland Ave, St. Louis, MO
Check out other attractions like Missouri History Museum
