Oregon Museum of Science and Industry
The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry is a science and technology museum in Portland, Oregon, United States. It contains three auditoriums, including a large-screen theatre, planetarium, and exhibition halls with a variety of hands-on permanent exhibits focused on natural sciences, industry, and technology, while transient exhibits span a wider range of disciplines.
History
Beginning in 1903, odd artifacts were displayed in hallways and alcoves in Portland City Hall arranged by Colonel L. L. Hawkins.When the collection was evicted in 1936, about 12,000 artifacts were stored throughout the city.
On November 5, 1944, the Oregon Museum Foundation was founded with the mission of establishing an Oregon Museum of History, Science, and Industry. It displayed its first collection of natural history objects at the Portland Hotel. Subsequent small exhibits occurred around town to generate interest and donations. In 1949, a house at 908 NE Hassalo St. was donated by Ralph B Lloyd, the Lloyd of the Lloyd District and Lloyd Center to establish the museum. Within a year, the Pacific Northwest's first public planetarium opened in a dome on the front lawn.
By 1955, OMSI's annual attendance had grown to 25,000. The need for expansion led volunteers to build a new site at Washington Park, achieving the original goal of establishing a hands-on museum. It opened to the public on August 3, 1958, following a formal dedication by the governor on June 7. A planetarium was again included. The new building at the southwest corner of what was then Hoyt Park was located adjacent to the then-new site of the Portland Zoo, which began a one-year phased move in the same month as the new OMSI was dedicated. The two attractions remained neighbors, sharing a parking lot, until 1992. The planetarium at the Washington Park site was originally a 90-seat facility housed in a temporary dome; in 1967, it was replaced by a larger 142-seat facility in a distinctive dodecahedral building equipped with a new projector.
1992 move
By the mid-1980s, 600,000 people per year were visiting the building, which was designed for only 100,000. Expansion at the Washington Park site was deemed infeasible, and in 1986 it was announced that the museum would move to a new location on the east bank of the Willamette River, where a much larger building would be constructed. Property that included the historic Station L power plant was donated by Portland General Electric, and building construction was paid for by a fundraising campaign. In 1992, OMSI opened at the new site, which continues to be the current location. The construction integrated the existing PGE turbine building and included the creation of a 330-seat OMNIMAX theater. The facility also includes a 200-seat planetarium with Digistar 3 technology.21st century
In 2004, the Turbine Hall was closed from September through November for renovations in which the Discovery Space and Technology Lab changed places and a new Inventors Ballroom was added. Also added were a small staging area for public exhibit demonstrations and a bridge connecting a new metal staircase with the mezzanine exhibits.The museum started planning for an expansion of the facility in 2006. In 2008, OMSI began finalizing the plans for the expansion, which was estimated to cost about $500 million and would double the size of the museum. They began working to secure the funds for the expansion in 2009, but decided to hold off on the plans in 2010 after the poor economy had made it difficult to try to raise funds for the project. In 2023, the city of Portland Design Commission approved a new hub in Central Eastside. This hub would be designed for science learning, arts, and culture. These plans would renovate a 10-block district and construct 1,200 units of housing space and public green space.
The OMNIMAX dome theater closed in September 2013 for conversion into a conventional flat-screen movie theater that is not IMAX but still has an extra-large screen, about four stories tall. Renamed the Empirical Theater, it reopened in December 2013.
As part of the COVID-19 pandemic, the museum received between $2 million and $5 million in federally backed small business loans from Heritage Bank as part of the Paycheck Protection Program.
Exhibits and attractions
OMSI has five different specialized exhibit halls, a planetarium, and a submarine exhibit.USS ''Blueback''
The was purchased by OMSI in February 1994. This submarine appeared in the 1990 film The Hunt for Red October before being towed to its present location, a pier adjacent to the museum. It was opened to the public on May 15, 1994, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in September 2008. The propeller is a National Submarine Memorial located outside of the main museum area, beside the Eastbank Esplanade. The submarine is available for daily guided tours and sleepovers.Featured Exhibit Hall
The Featured Exhibit Hall is used for temporary exhibits created by OMSI or those brought in from museums around the world. Past exhibits have included "Grossology", "Giants of the Gobi", "A T-rex named Sue", and "CSI: The Experience". Gunther von Hagens' Body Worlds 3, opened on June 7, 2007, and closed on October 7, 2007. By late September 2007, the exhibit had received 300,000 visitors, setting the record as OMSI's most visited traveling exhibit. In September 2015, OMSI hosted the National Guitar Museum's exhibition "GUITAR: The Instrument That Rocked the World."| Start date | End date | Exhibit | Links | References/notes |
| March 1, 1997 | September 1, 1997 | Giants of the Gobi | ||
| Winter 2001 | Spring 2001 | Grossology | ||
| September 2001 | January 2002 | A T-rex named Sue | ||
| June 7, 2007 | October 7, 2007 | Gunther von Hagens' Body Worlds 3 | ||
| May 2009 | September 2009 | CSI: The Experience | ||
| December 2009 | January 2011 | Samson the Colossal T. Rex Discovery | ||
| January 30, 2010 | May 31, 2010 | Space: A Journey to Our Future | ||
| July 2, 2011 | September 18, 2011 | Game On 2.0 | ||
| September 2012 | January 6, 2013 | Grossology | ||
| September 2015 | January 10, 2016 | GUITAR: The Instrument That Rocked The World | ||
| October 2, 2015 | January 3, 2016 | Genome: Unlocking Life's Code | ||
| February 13, 2016 | May 8, 2016 | Game Masters | ||
| June 18, 2016 | January 8, 2017 | Journey to Space | ||
| February 18, 2017 | May 29, 2017 | The Art of the Brick | ||
| June 24, 2017 | October 22, 2017 | Pompeii | ||
| November 18, 2017 | February 19, 2018 | Illusion: Nothing Is as It Seems | ||
| March 17, 2018 | September 3, 2018 | Robot Revolution | ||
| October 6, 2018 | January 27, 2019 | Discovery of King Tut | ||
| February 23, 2019 | September 2, 2019 | The Science Behind Pixar | ||
| October 5, 2019 | February 17, 2020 | Christopher Marley's Exquisite Creatures | ||
| March 20, 2021 | September 6, 2021 | Dinosaurs Revealed | ||
| March 2022 | September 2022 | The World of Leonardo da Vinci | ||
| October 8, 2022 | April 9, 2023 | Marvel: Universe of Super Heros | ||
| May 13, 2023 | January 28, 2024 | Orcas: Our Shared Future | ||
| March 2, 2024 | September 8, 2024 | Tyrannosaurs – Meet the Family | ||
| October 10, 2024 | Feb. 17, 2025 | Exquisite Creatures Revealed | ||
| March 15, 2025 | Sept. 1, 2025 | Jurassic World by Brickman |
Turbine Hall
The Turbine Hall is named for the large retired steam turbine from its days as a PGE power plant. It features exhibits about engineering, physics, chemistry, and space travel. The Turbine Hall has two floors. On the main floor are the large exhibits and enrichment areas. On the mezzanine there are smaller exhibits.The Innovation Station includes hands-on exhibits related to technology and invention. Laboratories for physics, chemistry, technology, and laser holography are connected to the Turbine Hall.
The Chemistry Lab is the first hands-on wet chemistry laboratory in the nation. There are six stations that allow visitors to learn about chemical interactions by participating in experiments that share a common theme. Themes rotate weekly and include the chemistry of toys, the nature of matter, biochemistry, environmental chemistry, industrial chemistry, chemical reactions, everyday chemistry, and crime scene chemistry. Chemical reaction demonstrations are given daily and are often related to the weekly theme.
Physics Lab exhibits include a Van de Graaff generator, motion detectors, electrical circuits, Morse code, magnets, computers that simulate basic properties of physics, and musical instruments.
The Laser/Holography Lab, which is open for approximately one hour every day, presents 30-minute demonstrations constructing a hologram.
The Vernier Technology Lab investigates the impact of technology on society. Rotating interactive exhibits allow visitors to investigate technologies such as robots and computers, security technology, biomedical technology, communications technology, and household technology. Visitors can also use a wide variety of educational software on internet-connected computers.