Miami Science Museum is seeking Construction Materials Testing Lab Services for the new $275 million Miami Science Museum to be located in Museum Park in Miami, Florida. This new highly sustainable facility will include a planetarium, aquarium, both indoor and outdoor flexible space for science exhibits as well as educational facilities. Miami Science Museum will make available the Request for Proposals for this project on January 25, 2012. To review information on the Miami Science Museum, please view the Museum’s website at www.miamisci.org and to obtain a copy of the RFP package, contact Jay Nichols at miami@oppenheimlewis.com. All proposal packages are due to Miami Science Museum by 12:00 Noon, EST Feb. 6, 2012.

Recently, surveyors, contractors and engineers visited the future home of the Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science, scheduled to open in Museum Park in 2015, to inspect and excavate the land and prepare it for construction. The purpose of the excavation was to determine any points of interference between the remnants of the old slip wall, caps and other debris, and the locations of the new Museum foundation pilings. Done in advance, this work is expected to save time and money when installing the building’s foundation pilings.

First, surveyors from Miller Legg used Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to identify the locations of buried solid objects on the land and then developed a drawing interpreting the GPR findings. Then, they used the drawing to mark the ground with locations of buried objects, in this case the steel sheet piling and concrete slip wall caps of one of the boat slips of the old Port of Miami.

New Museum Construction Managers Suffolk Construction, then performed the construction work shown in the pictures below. Remnants of the slip wall and concrete caps were located in seven places on the project site during the excavation project. In addition to the steel sheet pilings and the concrete cap of the slip wall were old wood timbers, concrete slabs and foundations of waterfront buildings associated with the old Port.

To view pictures of the excavation process, please click here: Miami Science Museum Site Excavation Photo Binder

Miami Science Museum is seeking Private Provider Inspection Services for the new $275 million Miami Science Museum to be located in Museum Park in Miami, Florida. This new highly sustainable facility will include a planetarium, aquarium, both indoor and outdoor flexible space for science exhibits, as well as educational facilities. Miami Science Museum will make available the Request for Proposals for this project on November 11, 2011. To review the information on Miami Science Museum, please view the Museum’s website at www.miamisci.org and to obtain a copy of the RFP package, contact Jay Nichols at oppenheimlewis@miamisci.org. All proposal packages are due to Miami Science Museum by 12:00 Noon EST, Nov. 23, 2011.

Miami Science Museum is seeking Threshold Inspection Consulting Services for the new $275 million Miami Science Museum to be located in Museum Park in Miami, Florida. This new highly sustainable facility will include a planetarium, aquarium, both indoor and outdoor flexible space for science exhibits, as well as educational facilities. Miami Science Museum will make available the Request for Proposals for this project on November 11, 2011. To review information on Miami Science Museum, please view the Museum’s website at www.miamisci.org and to obtain a copy of the RFP package, contact Jay Nichols at oppenheimlewis@miamisci.org. All proposal packages are due to Miami Science Museum by 12:00 Noon EST, Nov. 29, 2011.

]]> http://www.miasci.org/blog/rfp-threshold-inspection-consulting-services/feed 0 http://www.miasci.org/blog/miasci-gets-back-to-its-roots http://www.miasci.org/blog/miasci-gets-back-to-its-roots#comments Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:30:49 +0000 MiaSci http://www.miasci.org/blog/?p=1352

The land the Museum is currently on was once part of the Vizcaya estate. In the early 1900s, before the Museum was constructed, the estate utilized the land to grow fruit and vegetables, including oranges, mangoes, kumquats, beans, cabbage, potatoes, onions and tomatoes. Nearby, chickens, turkeys, ducks, guineas and cows were raised for dairy and poultry needs. The crops, poultry and dairy harvested from the property were used to feed the individuals working and living at the estate. The surplus was sold to the general public. “In essence, it was a miniature model farm,” said Alexander Privee, Archivist at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens.

Fast-forward almost 100 years to the present day, and the Museum is making preparations to grow and harvest edible crops on the property again. Two different types of hydroponic systems will be explored at the Museum, one using a series of planters in the Wildlife Center (supported by the Batchelor Foundation), and the other a Vertically Integrated Greenhouse (VIG) in the Sea Lab – VIGs can grow food crops vertically up the side of a building! These exhibits will serve as prototypes for some of the green components envisioned for the new Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science, scheduled to open in Museum Park in 2015.

VIG

Hydroponics is the process of growing plants in water, without the use of soil. There are many advantages to this method, one of the most important being that it uses less water. Each system includes a reservoir of nutrient-rich water, and the same water is cycled through the plants and drains back into the reservoir. Because they use recirculating systems, hydroponic systems also help to reduce the amount of fertilizers running off into rivers and streams. And since no soil is required for these systems, they make it possible to grow food in areas where the soil lacks sufficient nutrients or is just too poor to grow anything on. Soil itself is not essential to plant growth. When the required nutrients are introduced into a plant’s water supply artificially, soil is no longer necessary for the plant to thrive. Additionally, pests and diseases are easier to get rid of and control due to the container’s mobility.

“We live in an age of natural resource constraints, and our food supply chains are becoming stretched,” said Environmental Engineer Dr. Ted Caplow, special advisor to Miami Science Museum and inventor of the VIG. These hydroponic exhibits will give the young visitors of today some of the tools needed to solve the problems of tomorrow. By growing food in our cities, we can improve the health of our ecosystem while boosting our own nutrition at the same time.”

Thanks to their flexible design, hydroponic systems allow people in inner cities to obtain fresh produce, which might not be available otherwise. Since they take up less room than traditional farms, urban farms can produce more food in a much smaller space, which reduces the need to ship fruits and veggies in from all over the world, thereby reducing the amount of fossil fuels used to transport the food. This helps to reduce the carbon footprint of the city.

A Special Thank You to our Hydroponic Exhibits Sponsors:

The Museum’s hydroponics demonstration exhibits were made possible by generous grants from The Clarence and Ann Dillon Dunwalke Trust and the Allen Family Foundation, along with funding from the City of Miami. In addition, several vendors contributed materials.

EzGro Garden (http://www.EzGroGarden.com), a company that produces at home hydroponic gardening kits that are simple to use, provided a tower system that will be used in the planters. This is a great system for use at home for people that don’t have a lot of space. It allows people to grow edible crops vertically without soil, so it’s great for a condo or apartment as long as there’s some sunlight.

General Hydroponics (www.genhydro.com), an innovative company that manufactures hydroponic equipment and supplies, provided materials for the Planter System, including three Rainforest® Systems, two Eurogrower® Systems, and nutrients.

These exhibits will feature innovative, new, and sustainable materials, including Growstones growing media. Growstone (www.growstone.com), a company that collects waste bottles from landfills and recycles them into customizable products ranging from substrates for advanced hydroponic growing systems to green technology building materials, provided growing media for our hydroponic systems.

Installation of the Museum’s hydroponics demonstration exhibits is expected to be completed by the end of November, at which point the Museum will begin growing leafy greens, herbs, strawberries, tomatoes, and even some vegetables. As the plants start to grow, the Museum will be looking for volunteers and partners to help tend the plants and think up exciting and tasty uses for all the food! For more information about these and other exhibits at the Museum, visit: http://MiamiSci.org

The MiaSci Sea Lab, an indoor/outdoor exhibit that gives visitors a taste of some of the exciting aquarium components being planned for the new Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science, scheduled to open in Museum Park in 2014, now includes a Coral Aquaculture System. The aquaculture system is designed to grow coral colonies from fragments of existing corals donated to the Museum by members of the Florida Marine Aquarium Society. Each fragment is attached to a rock, which also bears the name of the person who donated it. Over time, the small coral fragments will grow into large corals, which will be transplanted to the coral reef exhibit in the new Museum.

Corals are marine organisms that live in colonies in shallow water. They are carnivorous invertebrates that feed on a number of small organisms, including plankton and small fish.

A coral aquaculture system is created to reproduce endangered coral and is often accomplished by marine aquarists through a process called fragmentation, or “fragging.” Special tools are used to cut fragments off of existing corals in aquaria, which are then glued to rocks or plugs and then placed in water. Over time, the fragments will grow and eventually cover the rock or plug they are glued to. Blue lights and circulating water stimulate growth of algae in the tissues of the coral.

“Coral aquaculture is important to maintain, sustain and help conserve endangered coral species,” said Skip Uricchio, MiaSci’s Aquarium Curator. “The coral fragment nursery will serve as a prototype for the Living Core exhibits in the new Museum and aims to educate and encourage visitor interest in the subject of our local environment. We are very pleased that so many local aquarists are contributing to this development.”

Recently, one of the Museum’s yellow stingrays gave birth to two healthy babies in the stingray touch tank!

The yellow stingray is a bottom-dwelling species that inhabits sandy, muddy or seagrass bottoms in shallow waters, often near coral reefs. During the day, yellow stingrays are relatively inactive and spend a lot of time buried under a thin layer of sediment. They feed on small invertebrates, shrimps, clams, worms and bony fishes.

In yellow stingrays, developing embryos are first sustained by yolk and later by histotroph (“uterine milk” rich in protein and lipids). Females bear two litters of up to seven young per year, following a gestation period of 5-6 months.

”These new stingray pups will help grow our animal collection for the new Museum using sustainable and responsible husbandry protocols such as allowing our animals to reproduce naturally,” said Skip Uricchio, MiaSci’s Aquarium Curator. “The stingrays will be raised to maturity in the tanks for the exhibits in the new Museum.”

Over the summer, the Museum opened its new exhibit, the Sea Lab, an indoor/outdoor attraction that gives visitors a taste of some of the exciting aquarium components being planned for the new Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science, scheduled to open in Museum Park in 2014. Sea Lab tells the story of energy and carbon flows through a marine ecosystem, from photosynthesis and primary production in algae and seagrass, to the small creatures and grazers that feed on algae and plants, to the larger fish and top predators of the seagrass food chain, including stingrays.

Did you know? Yellow stingrays give birth twice a year, between June and September, and between November and January, usually in litters of 3 to 4.

Stop by the Museum soon to meet the two newest additions to the Sea Lab family!

Fernando Bretos, Director of Miami Science Museum’s Reclamation Project and member of the new Museum team, was one of 17 individuals worldwide selected as a Kinship Conservation Fellow. Of the 2011 cohort, seven originate from the United States, and the remaining 11 are from Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala, Kenya, Madagascar, Mexico, Peru, Romania, Sierra Leone and Thailand. The 2011 cohort of Fellows took part in a month-long intensive learning program at the University of Western Washington in Bellingham, Washington. There they gained a broader understanding of how market-based tools can improve conservation practice globally. In short, Fellows learned how to put a value on highly exploited natural resources and create tradable markets for ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration and habitat for wildlife.

“Kinship was an amazing experience for me as I learned how to integrate long-term financial sustainability with conservation goals related to my work in the wider Gulf of Mexico and Florida,” said Fernando. “I gained a heightened appreciation for the value of natural resources such as coral reefs, wetlands and clean water, and expertise in ensuring that conservation is funded in perpetuity.”

During the program at Kinship, Fellows also received training in the Adaptive Leadership framework and the use of strengths-based leadership techniques. Fellows investigated environmental issues of the Pacific Northwest through a visit to the North Cascades National Park and presentations by innovative local sustainable industries.

At the conclusion of the experience, Fellows presented individual projects to a peer audience to test newly introduced concepts and skills. Mr. Bretos presented a pilot study to establish conservation trusts through eco-tourism activities in the western Caribbean. This project will commence in October 2011.

“After my time with the 2011 cohort of Kinship Fellows, I am very excited about the future” said Kinship Conservation Fellows Director Jim Tolisano. “We live in a time of volatile financial markets and increasingly challenging environmental problems.  But, the creativity, skills and passion that I encounter in people like Fernando Bretos convince me that we have a very promising future ahead of us, with some very exciting solutions in the works!”

To learn more about the Kinship Fellowship program, visit: http://kinshipfellows.org

Living Core Rendering - New Museum

The MiaSci Sea Lab, an indoor/outdoor attraction that gives visitors a taste of some of the exciting aquarium components being planned for the new Museum, scheduled to open in Museum Park in 2014 (Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science), recently got some new inhabitants: native red and black mangroves. The mangrove nursery will serve as a prototype for the Living Core exhibits in the new Museum and aims to educate and encourage visitor interest in the subject of our local environment.

The mangrove trees were chosen from a nursery in Homestead, FL and were recently planted in the Sea Lab space. These mangrove trees will grow at the current location over the next few years and will eventually be moved to the new Museum. “The mangrove nursery will utilize rainwater runoff and surplus purified water from the coral aquaculture systems to keep them in the optimum wet environment,” said Skip Uricchio, MiaSci’s Aquarium Curator. “It is always our goal to recycle and reuse our resources in the new exhibits here and at the new museum.”

Mangroves are extremely valuable for coastal ecosystems because their roots stabilize the shoreline, trap pollutants within their sediment and act as breeding grounds for juvenile fish.

Mangrove Nursery at MiaSci

Mangrove roots provide attachment surfaces for marine organisms such as barnacles and oysters and provide protected nursery areas for fish, crustaceans and shellfish. They also contribute to the food web, aiding in a multitude of marine species such as snook, snapper, tarpon, jack, oysters, crabs and shrimp. Animals find shelter in mangrove roots and branches, and the branches serve as rookeries (nesting areas) for coastal birds such as egrets, herons, brown pelicans and roseate spoonbills.

Florida’s estimated 400,000-500,000 acres of mangrove forests contribute to the overall environmental health of the state’s southern coasts. Without mangroves, many coastal fishing areas and habitats would deteriorate.

As many as 50 or more species of mangroves exist around the world. The Red Mangrove, Rhizophora mangle, is found closest to the water and is easily identified by its tangled, arching roots called “prop roots.” Red mangroves are also known as “walking trees” because they creep into new areas by branching roots.

The Black Mangrove, Avicennia germinans, often grows in shallow water and is easily identified by numerous finger-like projections called pneumatophores, that protrude from the soil around the tree’s trunk and help with root aeration and gas exchange.

Red Mangrove

Black Mangrove

Brenda Nestor Castellano, Trish and Dan Bell, Swanee and Paul DiMare

Miami Science Museum celebrated its eighth annual Gala, A Science Affair, at The Ritz Carlton, Key Biscayne on Saturday, February 27th. Champion benefactors included Philanthropic Chairs Trish and Dan Bell and Gold Sponsor Suffolk Construction Company, Inc. Four honorees were given prestigious awards representing the evening’s theme. Foley Arthur “Jack” Horkheimer received the Lifetime Achievement Award for his role as first and longtime Executive Director of the Space Transit Planetarium and creator of the weekly Star Gazer TV show; Museum Trustees Electra and Peter J. Spillis, A.I.A. received the Miami Science Museum Award for their many years of service and support, both to the programs of the existing Museum and in planning the new Museum; Former City of Miami Mayor Manny Diaz received the Visionary Award for creating a vision for Museum Park as the cultural heart of a regenerated downtown Miami; and AT&T received the Vanguard Award for its leadership and support of the Museum’s Youth Programs in Academic Enrichment. Co-Chairs Brenda Nestor Castellano and Swanee DiMare worked tirelessly to ensure the success of the event, which raised nearly $500,000.