Children’s Museum to close Sunday; new location opens in March

By Joe Schoenmann

Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013 | 2 a.m.

After serving more than 2 million visitors over 22 years, the Lied Children’s Discovery Museum on Las Vegas Boulevard North is closing its doors Sunday.

The good news is that a new facility, the Discovery Children’s Museum, will open March 9 with more than double the space and new exhibits whose grandeur and interest-quotient should far exceed the old ones.

Located in the Donald W. Reynolds Discovery Center adjacent to the Smith Center for the Performing Arts, the new 55,000-square-foot museum (Lied is 26,000 square feet) will feature exhibits that “come in line with today’s world,” said Denyce Tuller, director of marketing and public relations.

One attraction, the Summit, is described as a 70-foot tower that rises three floors and “pinches through the roof.” Aside from sliding down and climbing up the structure, kids will be able to interact and experiment with exhibits that demonstrate the basic science of simple machines, air pressure, flight and magnetics, among others.

Other exhibits include Water World, EcoCity, Patents Pending, Fantasy Festival, Mystery Town, Toddler Town and Young at Art.

Tuller said few, if any, exhibits in the current museum are being transferred.

Though the museum has reached its $12 million fundraising goal — the entire facility was budgeted for $55 million — Tuller said naming rights for the second floor, at $2.5 million, remain open.