The Museum recently completed installation of the first vertical axis wind-turbine in Miami-Dade, and the first small vertical wind turbine installation in all of Florida. This demonstration exhibit was installed at the Museum’s present site as part of the Energy Tracker exhibit now under development with funding from the U.S Department of Energy and the City of Miami.

The turbine will ultimately move to the new Museum downtown, where it will contribute to on-site energy generation and support programming around renewable energy.

The turbine is a 1.5 kilowatt GALE T1 manufactured by Tangarie, installed by local vendor Blue Alternative Energy. With a cut-in speed of 4.25 miles per hour, on a typical South Florida day it is capable of meeting about 10% of the energy requirement of an average South Florida home.

Although not connected to the grid at the current location, the turbine is part of a hybrid system that includes a small solar panel and a battery, and is used to power sensor-triggered lighting on the turbine, which comes on at dusk.

Yesterday, Miami-Dade County Commissioners voted in favor of the expansion of the Omni Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) in Miami. This is an extremely important step forward for the Miami Science Museum as it provides the City with a source of funding for Museum Park, including site remediation, capital construction and eventual maintenance.
 
 The Omni CRA expansion is part of a mega-deal that includes the expansion of the CRA’s bounds by more than 200 acres to include Bicentennial Park and Watson Island. Members of both the City and the County Commissions had doubts about various aspects of the CRA Expansion. However, Miami Science Museum has widespread community support and Museum Park will be accessible and enjoyed by everyone. A world-class park in this unique waterfront location will provide the appropriate framework for our Museum and is expected to have a major economic impact for the City.
 
I am really pleased about this important milestone and look forward to providing the County Commission with an extensive report on our progress. We’re moving ahead rapidly and are delighted the Commission voted to learn more as this is a major investment for the community. Museum Park will surely become an excellent central gathering spot for the community-at-large. We’re confident that the County Commission will continue to be pleased with our progress moving forward.
 
Stay connected with us for the latest on the new Miami Science Museum project.

Gillian
MiaSci’s President and CEO

Marine experts from around South Florida met today with members of the new Museum team to take part in a brainstorming workshop focused on advancing the design of the aquarium components of the New Museum’s Living Core. Experts included fish culturists Martin Moe and Julian Sprung; aquaculture researcher Dan Benetti and shark expert Neil Hammerschlag from the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Science; Jim Robinett from the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago; Billy Causey from NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries; conservation biologist Mahmood Shivji from NOVA’s National Coral Reef Institute; Mark Kraus from the Everglades Foundation, and marine scientist and popular science author Ellen Prager. Staff from Thinc, the exhibit design firm responsible for design of the Living Core, also attended the session.

The workshop was the kickoff to an intensive period of exhibit development that will begin next month, drawing on the experts to refine the key messages and content areas of the Living Core. In particular, the group identified specific opportunities for connecting the exhibits to current research; how the exhibits could be used to explore the broad environmental and social impacts of such topics as aquaculture and climate change; ways to use technology to enhance the experience, and ways to engage the public in ongoing research and solutions to environmental challenges. The Museum sees these kinds of workshops as a key strategy for tapping expertise and developing partnerships that will lead to a richer exhibit experience, and will use this approach to develop MiaSci’s other exhibit areas in the months ahead.

Good news! We have received the official green light from Miami-Dade County on continuing to the next phase of New Museum design with the release of the next allotment of General Obligation Funding. In this phase, $9.35 million dollars are being released to complete schematic design of the building and begin detailed design development. This funding release was dependent on negotiations with the City of Miami for the long-term lease on the four-acre site in Museum Park (Bicentennial Park) and site remediation agreements being completed. It’s a definite sign of confidence from the County for our project and we are thankful for their invaluable support.

Interestingly enough, as CEO I often hear, “Why’s it taking so long to get agreements finalized and General Obligation Bond cash released? Wasn’t it voted on in 2004?” In short, the answer is, Yes. The GOB was voted on in 2004 and in reality, creating the legal framework for public-private partnerships is a challenge. The private sector is often working in an accelerated manner and sometimes it’s difficult to follow the Public sector’s processes and extended timelines. However, this is a major project for Miami-Dade County, the biggest public-private project of the GOB. Both the County and City continue to be very supportive. This project could certainly take much longer to complete if we did not have their support.

The important thing to note is that we continue to move ahead smoothly with completing the design of our New Museum building. We’re also keeping to our timeline and plans quite nicely. Our New Museum is shaping up to be an example of a “best practice” in energy management and design. This is all very exciting and I’m confident that this project will have a major impact on the redevelopment of Downtown Miami with its unique combination of science, aquaria, planetarium and history.

We should see a lot more progress in the coming months, so please continue to check back to read updates from my staff, design team and myself. We will all keep you abreast of the exciting milestones ahead.

Gillian

After debuting the Energy Dance Floor last October, the Museum has now added a video to the exhibit which brings to life the message of ‘Kid Energy’ and animates the inner workings of the dance floor’s tiles. The first of its kind in the US, the floor captures energy from people dancing and converts it to electricity, which is used to power up special LED lighting effects embedded in the tiles. The video also features images and clips from around Miami, as well as dancers from Miami’s own Hip Hop Kidz and South Miami Middle School’s Dance Magnet.

The Energy Dance Floor video is being presented at the Museum on an innovative “floating” screen, but you can also check it out on the Museum’s YouTube channel:

There’s also a separate mini-floor with a thermal camera and a large-screen display, where dancers can see the heat that they’re generating while they dance.

The Energy Dance Floor is part of the Miami Science Museum’s ongoing efforts to prototype new ways for delivering content about renewable energy, in support of the Museum’s new 250,000 square foot LEED-certified building now under development and slated to open in 2014.