21 April 2023
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — New updates are coming to Exploration Place (EP), both along the river and inside, as soon as 2024.
At a Sedgwick County Commission meeting Wednesday, the Board of County Commissioners received and filed the agenda staff report for the Exploration Place update agenda item.
According to Patrick Goebel, the chair of the Exploration Place Executive Committee, EP is seeing attendance numbers at pre-pandemic levels.
Goebel states that the science center had 315,000 people visit in 2022. They also doubled their amount of family memberships, which now totals 8,515.
The agenda item also included a presentation on the “EP2 Initiative.”
EP2 Initiative
The EP2 Initiative has three phases.
Phase One – Amphitheater
Phase one of the EP2 Initiative is an amphitheater.
Goebel says EP held a test run as to rather the amphitheater would be a hit. It was the drone show that was held during Riverfest 2022.
“I can tell you the drone show sold out every night, and we entertained thousands,” Goebel said. “It was amazing to see.”
Goebel says phase one is already fully funded ($1.5 million) and is on its way to breaking ground this fall. It is expected to be finished in 2024.
The site plan for the amphitheater includes:
Seat wall adjacent to river path
Terraced plantings along river
Grand stairway with integrated planters and landscape lighting
750 square foot play node
Biodetention areas
Concrete Paces (Graytones)
Concrete bollards to match existing bollards
Grouping of fiberglass or architectural concrete planter pots
EV charging stations
Dense screening plantings
sloped artificial turf lawn
“As word has spread just about this amphitheater, you know, organizations have already been reaching out to Adam [Smith, president of the Exploration Place Executive Committee] to talk about programming this amphitheater space,” said Goebel. “As people find out about it, they want to have their events there.”
Phase Two – Playscape
Phase two of the EP2 Initiative is a playscape.
“You know there’s a new trend in quality of life for communities, and we believe our destination playscape will put us on the forefront of that,” Goebel said.
Goebel said while planning, they visited their nearest example, The Gathering Place in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
“It’s built to a theme park quality and standard,” Goebel said. “These are bold, immersive, educational environments, and they’re drawing millions of visitors.”
After their visit, EP narrowed it down to three providers; ape Studio, Kompan and Monstrum.
The EP2 Initiative shared its leading concept by Monstrum.
“It will feature multi-story, age-progressive, immersive landmarks built for all generations and leverages the unique character of our space,” Goebel said.
Phase two, the playscape and education center, has $4.6 committed to a $17 million estimated budget. This would be completed in 2025.
Phase Three – Indoor Renovations
Phase three of the EP2 Initiative is indoor renovations.
“Phase three will be an indoor renovation which will revive our Kansas Display, but also switch places with our event center,” Goebel said. “That will be one of the most iconic views in the City of Wichita.”
Phase three, indoor renovations, has an estimated $3.5 budget. This would be completed in 2025.
Goebel says the goals of the EP2 Initiative are to improve the quality of life for Wichita residents, increase tourism, help attract workforce talent, improve STEM education resources and increase childcare access. Other goals include growing EP attendance from 315,000 per year to 1 million per year and increasing economic impact from $21 million per year to $66.7 million per year.