Bringing play indoors, the CaytonChildren’s Museum was designed as a series of unexpected spaces that inspire kids to learn about and engage in their community. The 20,095 SF museum adaptively reuses part of the upper floor of Santa Monica Place, a retail center originally designed by Frank Gehry, by transforming a former artisanal food hall into the home of a Museum dedicated to the imagination and wonderment of being a kid.

Imagined as an inclusive space for free and safe discovery, the museum’s non-linear design relies on a network of freestanding, tactile objects purposefully sited to frame portions of the five exhibit neighborhoods while not revealing the entirety of the museum’s total offerings at once. The free plan approach affords each visitor the opportunity to chart theirown “Path of Awesome” through the more than 30 exhibits focused on helping kids play their way to a better world.

Architecturally scaled, Plywood clad objects referred to as the Armadillo, Porcupine, Onion, Egg, Houses and Drum shape the exhibit neighborhoods and address the requirements for non-exhibit program (entry/ticketing, security, classrooms, flex theater and retail frontage). Nicknamed for their external appearance, these objects solve operational requirements while remembering that everything is a teachable moment in a children’s museum. Together with interactive exhibits, they blur the line between exhibit and architecture which is exemplified by the Cloud Climber, an oversized catenary net structure that covers 20% of the Museum’s footprint and is hung from the ceiling in the high bay space.