The Chicago Children's Museum is located at

Navy Pier Navy Pier is a pier on the shoreline of Lake Michigan, located in the Streeterville neighborhood of the Near North Side, Chicago, Near North Side community area in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Navy Pier encompasses over of shops, restaura ...

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. It was founded in 1982 by The

Junior League The Association of Junior Leagues International, Inc. (Junior League or JL) is a private, nonprofit educational women's volunteer organization aimed at improving communities and the social, cultural, and political fabric of civil society. With ...

of Chicago who were responding to programming cutbacks in the

Chicago Public Schools Chicago Public Schools (CPS), officially classified as City of Chicago School District #299 for funding and districting reasons, in Chicago, Illinois, is the List of the largest school districts in the United States by enrollment, fourth-large ...

. Originally housed in two hallways of the

Chicago Public Library The Chicago Public Library (CPL) is the public library system that serves the Chicago, City of Chicago in the U.S. state of Illinois. It consists of 81 locations, including a central library, three regional libraries, and branches distributed thr ...

, it soon began to offer trunk shows and traveling exhibits in response to capacity crowds on-site. The museum moved a number of times over its initial years of existence while it continued to search for a permanent home. In 1995, the Museum thought it found that home when it reopened as an

anchor tenant In North American, Australian and New Zealand retail, an "anchor tenant", sometimes called an "anchor store", "draw tenant", or "key tenant", is a considerably larger tenant in a shopping mall, often a department store or retail chain. They are ...

at Navy Pier on

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and depth () after Lake Superior and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the ...

. The new facility offered of exhibition space and included three floors of educational exhibits, public programs and special events. Upon the move to the Pier, the expansion made it the fourth largest

children's museum Children's museums are institutions that provide exhibits and programs to stimulate informal learning experiences for children. In contrast with traditional museums that typically have a hands-off policy regarding exhibits, children's museums fea ...

in the United States. The museum serves more than 650,000 people, both at its Navy Pier location and in communities in and around Chicago, each year.

Relocation

The Navy Pier space served the museum well for more than a decade, but in 2006, the Museum announced plans to expand further and move to another location at Daley Bicentennial Plaza in Grant Park that would more than double its exhibition space and allow for greater community access. Despite some strong support from the community especially from

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Richard Daley, the proposal has met with some resistance from others who feared that the museum's move will invade Grant Park's open space and set a precedent for other organizations moving to the park. The new facility at Grant Park was designed by the architecture firm of

Krueck and Sexton Architects Krueck Sexton Partners (formerly Krueck + Sexton Architects) is an architecture practice in Chicago, Illinois, United States, founded by Ron Krueck and Mark Sexton in 1979. Tom Jacobs was named the third principal in 2011 and now serves as one of ...

, who designed the Spertus Museum on Michigan Avenue. By early 2011, museum officials affirmed their commitment to the plan but announced no new developments. Fundraising efforts had lagged while costs for the project had risen to an estimated $150 million. Crain's Chicago Business cited unnamed park officials who said that the museum will likely stay in its current location. At the same time, the Chicago Park District also awarded contracts to begin repairs on the garage under Daley Bicentennial Plaza. On October 25, 2011, the Chicago Park District unveiled a renovation plan for the northeast area of Grant Park that did not include the museum. When asked about the museum, the park district's director of planning and development replied, "Well, they're not coming to Grant Park." In late 2012, the museum announced it had agreed on a new, 90-year lease with Navy Pier.Lease plan
The agreement includes an expansion of the museum's presence at the Pier by nearly 50 percent (57,000 square feet to 84,000 square feet). Details of the expansion were expected to be announced in 2013.

References

External links

Chicago Children's Museum
{{Coord, 41, 53, 29, N, 87, 36, 33, W, region:US_type:landmark_source:kolossus-frwiki, display=title Children's museums in Illinois Dinosaur museums in the United States Museums in Chicago Central Chicago Natural history museums in Illinois Science museums in Illinois