Memorial Hall has an aggregate of 157,000 sf, Nancy D. Kolb, president and CEO of Please Touch Museum, tells GlobeSt.com. Currently, the interactive museum operates in 38,000 sf of exhibition space at N. 21st St. near Logan Circle and has an additional 30,000-sf building where its Enchanted Colonial Village holiday exhibition is stored.

In 1997, Please Touch anticipated building a new museum at Penn's Landing on the Delaware River and launched an $82-million fund-raising campaign. That plan was dropped when the last of several development proposals for Penn's Landing fell through. Kolb says it has raised $44 million and has about $30 million to go for its move to Memorial Hall. Among the estimated costs, she says, are $35 million for the relocation, $13 million for exhibits, $10 million to retrofit the building, plus "soft costs of renovation, such as architectural and engineering fees," and ongoing maintenance and administration.

The City Commission of Public Property owns Memorial Hall, but it is controlled by Fairmount Park Commission, which recently relocated its offices from the building in anticipation of Please Touch Museum's arrival. Gladly, according to Robert N.C. Nix III, the commission's president. "At the completion of this project," he says, "our signature landmark building will be restored to its deserved grandeur and the region will have another destination spot in historic West Fairmount Park."

Kolb says the museum plans to take occupancy in spring 2007. "We've had tremendous support from the area's Parkside community," which is in the process of revitalization, she adds. Kolb plans to work with Septa in providing increased public transportation to the new site, but also notes that Memorial Hall offers free parking, unavailable at the current location.

The agreement will not only restore the Beaux Arts building, which was constructed for the city's 1876 Centennial Exposition, to historic preservation standards, but also add impetus to creation of what is being called the Centennial District along the western edge of Fairmount Park. Billed as a "family entertainment district," it will encompass the zoo and Mann Center for the Performing Arts along with the children's museum.

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