BOYNTON BEACH, Florida (16 Mar 2003) -- The third largest city in Palm Beach County - doesn't have a major attraction to draw visitors. Community Redevelopment Agency Director Doug Hutchinson wants to change that by building a cutting-edge, $22 million museum complex on the Intracoastal Waterway. "Savage Creatures of Ancient Seas" would help create an identity for sprawling Boynton Beach and serve as a focus for the city's downtown redevelopment efforts. Cities across the state have used the "anchor project" approach to downtown redevelopment for years, Florida Redevelopment Association Director Carol Westmoreland said. Boca Raton has Mizner Park, West Palm Beach has Clematis Street and CityPlace, she said. It has been effective, but it's a bit of a gamble, Westmoreland said. "You're hoping that this is going to work, and it is a risk, but you do the best you can to make sure it's not an unreasonable risk," she said. Boynton Beach will face challenges: finding money, acquiring land and getting permission to build in the Intracoastal Waterway. If it works, having an anchor project would be a great step forward for downtown redevelopment, Westmoreland said. "It's the star that attracts people and announces that great things are happening," she said. Hutchinson pitched his museum idea to the redevelopment agency's board on March 8. The board will meet March 27 to consider the proposal. The Savage Creatures complex would have four major parts: The museum; a giant-screen theater; an outdoor common area that could be used as an event venue; and a wharf where visitors could board boats for scuba diving or fishing expeditions. The CRA, Boynton Beach and Palm Beach County would cover just over half the cost of the project, Hutchinson said. The rest would come from grants and donations, he said. | | The museum would showcase prehistoric sea creatures -- giant whales, sharks, crocodiles and walruses -- that lived in the area millions of years ago, while Florida was still deep beneath the waves. At 34,750 square feet, it would be the biggest such museum in the world, said Florida Atlantic University professor Ed Petuch, an expert on ancient oceans. Plans call for a close relationship between FAU and Savage Creatures, said Petuch, who helped Hutchinson develop the museum proposal. The university would provide specimens from its collection to put on display, offer classes at the museum and send graduate students for hands-on training on how to be curators. The university and the museum might also organize expeditions together to collect bones and fossils. "It's not going to be just an exhibition hall," Petuch said. FAU has a similar relationship with Dania Beach's Graves Museum. In fact, some of the FAU specimens that could end up in Boynton Beach are now at the Graves Museum. Next to the museum would be an IMAX-like, large-format theater. It would feature films with blasts of air, water misters and vibrations. If the CRA board decides to back the project, it could open by July 2007, according to Hutchinson's proposal. Other cities have used museums in their downtown redevelopment plans, said Florida Association of Museums Director Malinda Horton. Funding is usually the biggest challenge and will become an even bigger problem because the number of museums keeps increasing, but the pool of grant money available hasn't grown much. SOURCE - eNews |
