Cayton Children’s Museum // OFFICEUNTITLED

Text description provided by the architects.

Bringing play indoors, the Cayton Children’s Museum was designed as a series of unexpected spaces that inspire kids to learn about and engage in their community.

Located steps from Santa Monica Pier, the museum will adaptively reuse 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 the Cayton Children’s Museum.

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 all at once.

The free plan approach affords each visitor the opportunity to chart his or her own “Path of Awesome” through the more than 30 exhibits focused on helping kids play their way to a better world..