ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Officials on Tuesday placed the final steel beam of the new $80 million Da Vinci Science Center, moving the project closer to educating generations about science, technology, engineering, art and math.
"Today is an amazing day in Allentown," Allentown Schools Superintendent Carol D. Birks said from a podium at a topping-off ceremony that gathered local leaders to support and congratulate the team.
- The final steel beam was place in the new Da Vinci Center in downtown Allentown on Tuesday, marking the final year of construction
- The new location is set to feature live otters, a tribute to Da Vinci, and interactive, educational exhibits
- The total cost has so far been $80 million, and it's set to open in spring 2024
The building, at the PPL Pavillion on Hamilton Street, will contain 67,292 square feet, planned to be filled with hands-on educational exhibits in the STEAM subjects.
It's expected to open in spring 2024.
"We are particularly excited about this location in downtown Allentown," Birks said. "The site is centrally located in the heart of the proximity of our our school district, where approximately 43 percent of our students live, within one mile from this center.
"So think about the difference this will make for many families, as well as the children that it will serve, and will have students learning a great deal of problem solving and critical thinking."
"I have to tell you, I love being an architect, and I love drawing, like all of my staff does ... We know it will greatly benefit our community and its citizens in ways that perhaps today we can't even imagine. And I can't wait for all of you to experience it."
Architect Silvia Hoffman, who designed the new Da Vinci Center
The ceremony also featured speeches by Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk, representatives of PPL Corp. and Lehigh Valley Health Network, as well as architect Silvia Hoffman, who designed the building.
"I have to tell you, I love being an architect, and I love drawing, like all of my staff does," Hoffman said. "A lot of them are here tonight. But it's so much better to actually see the real thing coming up out of the ground. So I'm deeply grateful to everyone who's making it happen.
"We know it will greatly benefit our community and its citizens in ways that perhaps today we can't even imagine. And I can't wait for all of you to experience it."
Planned features
Construction on the building started in April 2022, and is expected to wrap up next spring. The center since has posted a time-lapse video of its progress on its website.
Until 2005, the center operated in a building owned by Bethlehem Steel, which then shut down shortly after Bethlehem Steel did.
Since then, the center has been in a building owned by Cedar Crest College at 3145 Hamilton Blvd. in Allentown.
There is no word on what the center plans to do with that location.
Among the sections of exhibits planned at the PPL Pavillion location will be:
- The Curiosity Hall, an interactive exhibition about the human body and brain. It includes a 60-foot-talll tribute to Leonardo Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man drawing.
- The My Body exhibit, another exhibit focused on the science of the human body.
- Lehigh River Watershed, with river otters as "stars of the show", according to the center's website. It was made in partnership with the Wildlands Conservancy.
- Science in the Making, demonstrating the science behind some of the products made in Lehigh Valley factories.
Signing on history
At Tuesday's ceremony, people stood in line to sign the white beam of steel that topped the building — some poking fun at each other, saying their signatures were too big, or illegible.
On the beam was a toy otter wearing a hard hat — he is apparently not one to ignore OSHA regulations.
The otter, some might say, became the star of the show. When the beam was raised 60 feet in the air by crane, people worried aloud about his well being.
The construction workers on the roof of the structure placing the beam by hand carefully removed the otter, and people cheered as they watched from the seventh floor of a neighboring building.
Near the end of the presentations, Da Vinci Center Chairman Jim McLean asked his employees to come up to the podium to be recognized.
They were easily spotted throughout the crowd, most wearing purple uniform shirts.
"Don't make me come get you!" McLean said, jokingly, after some looked at each other and hesitated to take the stage. One jokingly looked over at the media and rolled his eyes, doing an exagerrated "dragging my feet" motion while wandering up to the stage.
When the Da Vinci Center staff all got to the front, the crowd cheered louder and more enthusiastically than they had all day.
"I've often said to people," Mclean said. "We can build the most beautiful building, but if the visitors walk in the door and they're not excited, they're never coming back.
"Well, I can tell you," he said. "These people are exciting to be around."
View from the seventh floor
After the presentations, Da Vinci Center staff politely wrangled guests to take them up to the seventh floor of an office building next door.
The plan: to watch the final steel beam put in place by a construction crane.
On the seventh floor, guests were greeted by a champagne (and non-alcoholic apple cider) bar, operated by HausBar.
Beth van Horn, who owns the bar service, poured fizzy drinks for those in attendance, and suggested they might want to save them for when the beam goes in place, so they can celebrate.
As people crowded around the tall windows, all watched in anticipation as the crane picked up the beam, and dropped it into place, guided by two construction workers on the roof.
People cheered, and clinked their glasses together.
After the event wrapped up and people started to pile out, a hurried-looking woman came up the stairs, carrying the toy otter from the beam.
"He lives!" she proclaimed.