in is welcoming a new director amid a $150 million expansion to transform itself into a world-class attraction more than 65 years after its inauspicious 1959 creation by women from the Junior League of the Palm Beaches.
In March, Kurt Allen, 60, arrived to lead the expansion designed to make the center attract a broader audience. That month, the city also approved the huge expansion.
They鈥檒l keep the doors open for most of the makeover, Allen said, offering events like a huge Lego exhibit by artist Sean Kenney coming in May and summer camp.
The work started on the outside in May 2024. The center鈥檚 footprint in the will increase from about 6.5 acres to 11 acres, with a good portion for more parking. When completed, the park grounds, its tree-lined walkways and benches, will be open to guests without a ticket.
Inside, the center will balloon from 35,000 to more than 100,000 square feet. And that鈥檚 just the beginning.
More than $134 million of the $150 million has been raised. The center hopes to hold a grand opening around Christmas 2027. The expansion will:
- Construct a two-level, four-story Hall of Science visible from I-95 with a learning center, aquarium, digital exhibit gallery and a traveling exhibit gallery.
- Expand the Aquarium to 160,000 gallons, making it one of Florida鈥檚 largest indoor aquariums. Both salt-water and freshwater exhibits and floor-to-ceiling aquatic habitats will take visitors through the Everglades gallery, a coral reef gallery, a display on Florida鈥檚 inland rivers and a deep-water shark tank.
- Create the Schwab Family Next Generation STEAM Learning Center, the education hub, featuring larger classrooms and an expanded biology lab available to medical magnet schools in Palm Beach County.
- Complete the John Paulson and Alina de Almeida STEAM Studio, which adds art and design to science, technology, engineering and math, and features more than 50 interactive exhibits targeted at visitors 10 and under. It will have five themes: Forces and Motion, Electricity and Magnetism, Light and Color, Matter and Energy and Math.
- Complete the Digital Exhibit Gallery, which includes an immersive space capable of 40-foot tall projections of signature programs from rocket launches to inside of King Tut鈥檚 tomb.
- Double the museum鈥檚 traveling exhibit space.
- Complete the Innovation Theater for live demonstrations, guest speakers and programs featuring science, technology and innovation.
- Create the Hall of Science to serve as the new home base for regional robotics competitions and the First Lego League.
- Triple parking from 93 spaces to more than 280.
The science center leases its land from the city for a nominal fee, and the agreement has been extended for 75 years with a 25-year optional renewal.
The science center welcomes about 350,000 guests annually, including 175,000 students from Title One schools. Its goal is to attract half a million guests and educate 70 percent more children.
This is the science center鈥檚 biggest growth spurt since it was founded in 1959 by the Junior League of the Palm Beaches.
A group of women 鈥� former museum CEO Lew Crampton, a Palm Beach Town Council member, would later call them the 鈥渕others of science鈥� 鈥� started it in response to front page news about the space race.
鈥淏ack then, they wanted to focus on animals, geology, marine life, agriculture, history,鈥� said board of trustees member Harvey Oyer III, speaking of what was known then as the Junior Museum of Palm Beach County. 鈥淟ike it was all lumped together because we didn鈥檛 have any of those things, so they were going to squish it together in one concept.鈥�
Hard times and a dinosaur to the rescue
The science center grew by fits and starts, changing boards and leadership every few years. But in the late 鈥�80s, the museum struggled financially and was in danger of closing. West Palm Beach cut its $10,000 supplement and eventually forced the museum to pay for maintenance, a 1996 stated.
The school board cut its $50,000 annual stipend. Palm Beach County turned over the financing of the museum to the Tourist Development Council, which cut the museum鈥檚 grant to $60,000.
But James Rollings came on board in 1996 and persuaded the board to spend the equivalent of one-fourth of the museum鈥檚 budget 鈥� $200,000 鈥� on a dinosaur exhibit. And it worked. The success of the Dinamation Dinosaurs exhibit helped usher in 10 years of big changes.
After Rollings left in 2006, the museum went through three CEOs in four years.
When board Chair Matt Lorentzen joined in 2008, the center had been operating with a deficit. The father of three, whose background was in aviation finance, led the museum into the black, boasting a $300,000 surplus in 2012.
Lorentzen, rallying support from local philanthropist Alexander Dreyfoos, helped usher in 鈥渁 $5 million expansion that has made the aquarium one of the largest in the state,鈥� according to a in magazine.
A new era takes shape
鈥淎nd so as part of that refocus, we also had some leadership changes in the administration of the science center. Lew Crampton joined us as the CEO, and we made a much more realistic plan for the capital side,鈥� Lorentzen said in .
Crampton, a self-proclaimed science nerd who had retired to South Florida, hit the ground running. In a bold move, Crampton in 2013 brought in the museum鈥檚 first major visiting exhibit 鈥� 鈥淭itanic: The Artifact Exhibition.鈥�
Crampton told the that individual (non-group) attendance increased by 171 percent, and revenue from ticket sales during the Titanic run totaled $535,000.
鈥淭o put that figure in perspective, the museum鈥檚 entire revenue for budget year 2013 was $524,000,鈥� Crampton said.
In 2015, a $2 million capital campaign for improvements to the 鈥渨est wing鈥� entered Phase 2, thanks in part to a $500,000 cultural facilities grant from the state of Florida.
The Hall of Discovery included the exhibits 鈥淐hallenge the Brain鈥� and 鈥淪prouting Science, 鈥� and a new early childhood learning station. Another $150,000 paid for a new roof on the original aging building, built in 1964.
When Crampton left in 2018 to after winning a seat on the Palm Beach Town Council, Kate Arrizza, a former naval officer, came on board. Arrizza had grown up coming to the science center. She became the Science Center鈥檚 education director in 2009 and its chief operating officer in 2012. In 2018, she took over as CEO.
Palm Beach residents Wendy and Howard Ellis Cox Jr. made a $20 million gift in 2021 to launch a $45 million expansion campaign. The South Florida Science Center was renamed the Cox Science Center and Aquarium that year.
By the time she left in 2025 to become executive director of the Jupiter-based Stiles-Nicholson Foundation, Arrizza had bolstered the science center into one of West Palm Beach鈥檚 most popular destinations.
Enter Kurt Allen
In December, the board began courting Kurt Allen.
Allen came to South Florida after being president and CEO of the Mississippi Aquarium, where he led the $103 million development and construction of the state鈥檚 first aquarium. It opened in Gulfport in 2020. Three years later, he oversaw a $4 million update to the facility with two dozen new exhibits.
Allen had fallen in love with marine life when he ran a business swimming with dolphins in Hawaii after college. It was during COVID pandemic, and he saw it as a unique opportunity. His next career move took him to Marineland Dolphin Adventure in St. Augustine, where his own young children piqued his interest in science education.
鈥淲e wanted someone who wasn鈥檛 just a tourist attraction expert, but also understood the education process for children,鈥� board Chair Eric Stonestrom told the . 鈥淪o he has had a deep exposure to (improving) guest experience and making visitors happy.鈥�
It鈥檚 a feeling Allen has come to love. 鈥淲atching a kid鈥檚 face light up when they experience something new is really what it鈥檚 all about,鈥� he said in an interview with Stet News.
He said he had that experience as he learned about dolphins and aquariums through his children.
鈥淚 really didn鈥檛 get into the education side until I was talked into joining the board of my kids鈥� charter school. Then I really started to understand the impact of education. It really spring-boarded me into what I鈥檓 doing now.鈥�
Allen supports widening the focus of his audience, not just bringing in more of them.
鈥淥ur core audience right now is really 2- to 10-year-olds, and our challenge is to expand that into the junior high and high school range. The types of programs we鈥檙e working on now will expand that educational reach to a broader audience,鈥� Allen said.
鈥淥ur motto is to open every mind to science, and that鈥檚 the challenge. We are aware of the impact that we鈥檙e going to be able to make on our children and our children鈥檚 children. We鈥檙e building this for the long haul, and it鈥檚 very rewarding to be able to be a part of a project like this.鈥�
The donors making it possible
Board member Oyer, whose local family roots go back five generations, said it would be impossible to imagine such growth as recently as five years ago.
鈥淭he scale in which we think now 鈥� it鈥檚 such a dramatic increase. We live in an interesting time. The new Science Museum and the are on a scale and sophistication level of which we never could have thought about growing up here.鈥�
After the COVID pandemic, the influx of wealth brought a population with a deep interest in science as well as the arts, Oyer said.
鈥淜en Griffin moving here, Brightline coming here, Steve Ross investing here, local resident Donald Trump getting elected president, a confluence of things had to come together to drive this incredible wealth migration and intellectual capital migration to Palm Beach County. A $40 million expansion at the Science Center becomes a $150 million expansion.鈥�
It wouldn鈥檛 be possible without the donors, Oyer said. 鈥淭here are people at the table saying, 鈥業 want to do this, and I am willing to pay for it.鈥� And it鈥檚 extraordinary.鈥�
鈥淲hen you really pause and think, 鈥楢m I really getting to be a part of all this?鈥� It鈥檚 generational, game-changing.鈥�
The magnitude of the expansion is part of what persuaded CEO Allen to leave his job in Mississippi. But more than the support from the new wealth, it was the center鈥檚 strong relationship with the community that appealed to him, Allen said.
鈥淓veryone already loved the science center. It was just a matter of bringing all the right partnerships together,鈥� Oyer said. 鈥淭heir partnership with the school district, the private schools, the local archaeology society, the local ham radio operators, the local geology club, anyone who even tangentially touches science has a partnership with the Science Center.
鈥淲e were fortunate we had these retired astronauts living here, and they were donating moon rocks, they鈥檙e giving lectures, they鈥檙e hosting events. Edgar Mitchell, Buzz Aldrin, Scott Carpenter, Bob Crippen, these legends in the history of the world. I don鈥檛 mean in the history of space. They were the Magellans of our era.鈥�
The center rallied support from unlikely sources such as golfer Jack Nicklaus and course designer Jim Fazio. 鈥淵ou build a miniature golf course with science experiments on it and get the two biggest-name golf course designers in the country to pro bono design your miniature golf course.鈥�
But sometimes businesses grow too fast to be sustainable, Oyer said.
鈥淚t is not uncommon for museums to raise the money to build a giant physical structure and then not enough people come through the gates, or they鈥檙e not willing to pay a high enough rate to sustain it. And they wind up having financial trouble.
鈥淏ut I think we will be able to pivot and adapt five years from now, 10 years from now.鈥�
Bigger space, bigger ambitions
A key part of the expansion is the increase in exhibit space.
These mega-traveling exhibits have served the Science Center well since Titanic arrived in 2013.
鈥淵ou need to have the best traveling exhibits in America,鈥� Oyer said, 鈥渁nd to do that, you have to have the space, the parking, the insurance, the accreditation, all of the things in place so the coolest exhibit in America is going to come to you and not the Tampa Science Center, not to Orlando, not the Fort Lauderdale or Miami.鈥�
A completion date hasn鈥檛 been established. 鈥淲e鈥檝e got many months of construction to go through to really fine-tune our processes. We鈥檙e really going from a historically smaller science center into a very different product,鈥� Allen said. However, Allen said he and the board of trustees are hoping to give West Palm Beach a fantastic Christmas in 2027.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really becoming so much more than the little community museum that it started out as,鈥� he said.
The Junior Museum of Palm Beach County was founded by the Junior League of the Palm Beaches to focus on the natural sciences. (Photo: Courtesy of Cox Science Center)
If you go:
Where: 4801 Dreher Trail North, West Palm Beach.
Hours: Monday 鈥� Friday from 9 am-5 pm and on Saturday and Sunday from 10 am-6 pm.
Admission: $26 adults, $24 ages 13-17, $22 ages 3-12, $24 for seniors age 60 and older, free for children younger than 3 and museum members.
Contact: 561-832-1988;
This story was originally published by , a SA国际传谋 News partner.
