THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 10, 1996 TAG: 9601100644
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBBIE MESSINA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
A museum without walls.
That's how the Virginia Marine Science Museum's director describes the new Owls Creek Marsh Pavilion, which opens Thursday.
Inside the 20,000-square-foot building, visitors can explore the ecology and habitat of Owl Creek's salt marsh close up, through microscopes, zoom camera lenses and in aquariums.
Outside the building, the same marsh is laid out before your eyes, ears and nose. Trails and boardwalks enable visitors to experience the plant and animal life in the natural state.
C. Mac Rawls, museum director, said the indoor-outdoor concept is ``like no other in the world and sets the standards for marine science facilities of the future.''
The new building is part of a $35 million museum expansion that will open in stages. While the marsh pavilion will open Thursday, not all the exhibits are in place yet.
Two other additions, featuring a 300,000-gallon ocean aquarium and a 3-D IMAX theater, are scheduled to open in early summer.
Meanwhile, the original museum will remain open during construction.
Museum officials are calling the opening a ``Come Watch Us Grow'' program that provides the community a preview of work in progress at the marine science museum.
``Public participation is an inherent part of the museum's mission, and we feel that visitors will want to join us in watching our expansion take shape now that we are in the final stages,'' Rawls said.
On Thursday, the entrance to the museum complex will be moved to the Owls Creek Marsh Pavilion. Signs will direct visitors to the new building and parking lot.
The marsh pavilion is about one-third of a mile south of the museum's core complex, which includes the original building and the two additions under construction. A boardwalk and trails through the marsh connect the two sites.
The Owls Creek Marsh Pavilion is filled with many little creatures - including fiddler crabs, sea roaches, green snakes, meadow voles, tree frogs, snapping shrimp and barracudas - that were collected just outside its doors.
Maylon White, museum curator, said the exhibits were developed to show visitors what to look for in the marsh.
``People who looked out onto the marsh would say they didn't see anything out there,'' White said. ``But they didn't know what to look for or where to look for it. So we wanted to show them how to look for it and develop that `oh, yeah' response.''
When the rest of the expansion areas open in the early summer, the museum will grow from 40,000 square feet to 120,000 square feet of indoor space and from nine acres to 45 acres of outdoor space.
Highlights of the other additions include a 300,000-gallon ocean aquarium, a 70,000-gallon sea turtle aquarium, a sea turtle hatching laboratory, a harbor seal pool, a six-story 3-D IMAX theater and an indoor-outdoor restaurant.
About $30 million of the construction cost is being financed through the Tourism Growth Investment Fund, a special revenue pool from hotel and restaurant taxes to underwrite the cost of major tourism-boosting projects.
About $5 million is being raised from the private sector to pay for exhibits. The museum is less than $700,000 short of that goal. Admission is $5.25 for adults, $4.50 for children under 12 and $4.75 for seniors. Special expansion-year memberships are $40 for individuals and $60.45 for families. Admission prices will rise once the expansion is complete. MEMO: The Virginia Marine Science Museum, at 717 General Booth Blvd., is
open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.The Virginia Marine Science
Museum, at 717 General Booth Blvd., is open seven days a week from 9
a.m. to 5 p.m.
Admission is $5.25 for adults, $4.50 for children under 12 and $4.75
for seniors. Special expansion-year memberships are $40 for individuals
and $60.45 for families. Admission prices will rise once the expansion
is complete.
For more information, call 425-FISH or 437-4949. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by STEVE EARLEY, The Virginian-Pilot
Bruce Peachee works on a ``Plants of the Marsh'' display for the
Virginia Marine Science Museum's new Owls Creek Marsh Pavilion,
scheduled to open Thursday. The pavilion will also feature mounted
woodpeckers and squirrels, above right.
by CNB