Welcome to the Public Science Common A transformative space to expand accessibility and passion for science. Image The Museum of Science, Boston is excited to announce a major renovation and reinvention of 10,000 square feet at the Museum to establish the Public Science Common, a state-of-the-art convening space that will connect the public to Boston’s unparalleled scientific community. The space is a critical part of meeting the Museum’s mission to inspire a lifelong love of science in everyone and to play a leading role in transforming the nation’s relationship with science and technology at a time of rapid innovation. Lead support has been generously provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies. Image An imagined robotics fair inside the Public Science Common. The new convening space will serve as the central hub of the Museum’s three new Centers for Public Science Learning—the Center for Life Sciences, the Center for the Environment, and the Center for Space Sciences—led respectively by directors Insoo Hyun, PhD, David Sittenfeld, PhD, and Danielle LeBlanc. The Centers will use the new convening space as a platform for public conversations, lectures, ideas festivals, student competitions, and more. Through its digital capabilities, the Public Science Common will also engage global audiences both in real time and after the fact, amplifying the Museum's on-site experiences and becoming a driving force of global public science conversations. "The Public Science Common will allow us to lead the world in an exciting new direction for engaging the public with science," said Tim Ritchie, president of the Museum of Science. "It will be a place for people to bring their ideas and hopes, questions, and doubts, and a place where industry, academia, government, and the public can think out loud and solve problems together."The Museum anticipates construction on the Public Science Common convening space will commence in 2024, with a planned completion date in 2026. Image Close-up exterior view of the Public Science Common. The principal architect behind the Public Science Common is William Rawn Associates, a national award-winning performing arts architecture firm responsible for some of New England’s most iconic buildings, including the central libraries for Boston Public Library and Cambridge Public Library, Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, Tata and Klarman Hall at Harvard Business School, Brookline High School, and Berklee Tower. The lead construction company on the project is Consigli Construction Co., Inc. Consigli has extensive experience in the museums/cultural space, including the National Air and Space Museum, the Lincoln Memorial, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum, and the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Consigli has partnered with William Rawn Associates on multiple projects, including: the central libraries for Boston Public Library and Cambridge Public Library, the Gordon Center for Creative and Performance Arts at Colby College, and Tanglewood’s Linde Center for Music and Learning. Image Read the full press release here.
