Musing About the Future: New Museums and FECs Show the New Face of Cultural Entertainment By Jessica Downey For the Love of the Game Philip Schwalb is not an equal-opportunity sports fanatic. In spite of his love for baseball, football, tennis, and just about anything involving competition, basketball gets special treatment. A graduate of Duke University, where the basketball team is tirelessly marketed, Schwalb turned his love for sports into a vision. Schwalb’s vision, $65 million, and the imagination of several architectural and exhibit developers will bring the National Sports Museum to lower Manhattan, just four blocks from where the World Trade Center once stood. Scheduled to open in early 2006, the National Sports Museum will pay homage to many of the sports halls of fame throughout the United States. Schwalb, founder and executive chief of the museum, says the venue will likely bring 37.2 million visitors from every corner of the world in its very first year of operation. He believes the museum could make quite a social impact while also being entertaining. The impetus for the museum is twofold, he says. “I started the National Sports Museum just after 9/11 in New York City, so one aspect of the project is the revitalization of lower Manhattan. It’s going to be halfway between the Statue of Liberty and the World Trade Center, so it’s a great place for the museum to be,” Schwalb says. “The other part of the vision was a sense that there are a lot of great sports museums and halls of fame around the country and that more people should know about them.” After spending a significant amount of time trying to get a piece of the WTC space, Schwalb says New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg advised him that it could take many years before businesses could get into that space. The compromise is a space four blocks south, overlooking the 18th century Bowling Green—one of New York’s earliest sporting grounds—in the former Standard Oil Building at 26 Broadway. Renderings for the museum are already well under way by designers Gallagher & Associates, who Schwalb says he and Project Manager Jones Lang LaSalle selected because of the firm’s previous successes—The Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, and parts of the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame, to name a few. Showcasing a Passion The National Sports Museum will follow what Schwalb describes as a somewhat new trend in museums—steering clear of a chronological approach and organizing the exhibits in a way that brings out people’s passion for all kinds of sports. The museum will present memorabilia in the form of multimedia and interactive exhibitions, and history for sports such as baseball, basketball, football, hockey, auto racing, golf, tennis, boxing, track and field, collegiate athletics, soccer, swimming, the Olympic Games, and more. Other exhibits will be organized according to themes common to all sports (inspiration, innovation, diversity, and community). Visitors will then be led through the Hall of Halls, celebrating North America’s varied sports halls of fame. Gallagher has already made significant progress in the initial designs. Still, Schwalb says March 2006 is the earliest that he can envision the project being completed; “The reason for that is the time it takes to do all the exhibitry, which is pretty elaborate.” In the section devoted to specific sports, the prospectus promises “subtle but distinct scents, such as the smell of chlorine in the swimming area and popcorn, cut grass, or cotton candy in the baseball area,” to give visitors the sense of place and excitement that go with it. Schwalb says he’s eager to see the project come to fruition, but he’s most looking forward to the theater, which will have a 360-degree video projection system. “It’s an auditorium of about 350 seats. We will have a well-known athlete once a week give a speech for schoolchildren,” he says. “It’s going to be great because New York City is very diverse by way of income level and nationality, so I’m excited about [giving the kids] at different lectures a chance to see world-class athletes in person.” Three percent of all annual ticket sales will be donated to a grouping of charitable partners, including The Jackie Robinson Foundation, the Autism Coalition, and Pat LaFontaine’s Companions in Courage Children’s Charity. The funding for the museum is coming from public and private investments, a 70/30 split that Schwalb says follows the model museums are using to find their dollars. The public funding is made up of Liberty Bonds, a tax-exempt program that began awarding new commercial growth projects funds after 9/11. Malaysia’s Lost World Known for its 5,000-year-old Neolithic paintings, the Tambun Caves is a Malaysian destination all its own. Its namesake, the Lost World of Tambun, a new 25-acre waterpark in Sunway City Ipoh, Perak, is on track for a September 2004 opening, bringing to life the ancient ruins and grottos of a lost civilization. This new venture undertaken in Malaysia by the Sunway Group, makers of the Sunway Lagoon in Kuala Lumpur, has drawn on the stunning vista for inspiration, says General Manager Paul Blunt. The theme is one of the main challenges of the park. Malaysian contractor Sim Leisure Consultants, in partnership with Sunway Design, is developing elements and landscaping that will transport guests to an ancient world. Vines, tropical plants, and jungle sounds make the setting come to life. Throughout the waterpark will be a mix of tube slides built by Australian Waterslides & Leisure, speed coasters, a wave pool, and a kids’ area that includes the first-ever adventure river in Malaysia and one of the longest rivers to feature a wave generator, Blunt says. Hot Springs, one of the area’s most spectacular natural resources, will be incorporated into the park, giving guests the chance to experience the springs’ rejuvenating powers. Also incorporated into the park will be Tiger Valley, a concept made famous by Sunway in Malaysia. This newest display will feature a daily live interactive display and information session about these animals. For more information, visit www.sunway.com. Huckleberry Finn Comes Home Mark Twain’s most beloved and celebrated character, Huckleberry Finn, will now have a home of his own with the addition of the 19th-century cabin being rebuilt in Twain’s hometown of Hannibal, Mo. The Mark Twain Home and Museum pays tribute to the characters, such as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, that Twain based on people he knew while growing up in Hannibal as Samuel Clemens. Among those characters was boyhood pal Tom Blankenship, the inspiration for Huckleberry Finn. Blankenship’s family’s original cabin was demolished in 1911, said Henry Sweets, museum curator. The project is expected to be complete by the end of 2004. The Mark Twain Home Foundation is hoping to raise $6 million in capital during the next three years. Sweets says the goal is to give visitors a better understanding of what Hannibal was like when Twain lived there. For more information, visit www.marktwainmuseum.org. American Treasures No other museum can boast a collection that includes the ceremonial sword and the family bible of legendary pioneer Daniel Boone, the big stick of President Theodore Roosevelt, the bow attributed to the Apache warrior Geronimo, or the ivory-handled Colt pistols of General George Armstrong Custer. The Frazier Historical Arms Museum in Louisville, Ky., holds a one-of-a-kind armory stocked with artifacts that once belonged to famous American and British politicians, celebrities, notable frontiersmen, and soldiers. In a joint venture between the United Kingdom and the United States, the $32 million, 100,000-square-foot museum showcases the history of Great Britain and the United States through weapons and their trappings. The Frazier, which opened at the end of May, features pieces from the personal collection of museum founder Owsley Brown Frazier as well as from the Royal Armouries in England, Britain’s oldest museum. Thanks to the close collaboration with the Royal Armouries, the Frazier will also display the arms and armor of kings and knights, including some possessions of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. Costumed interpreters and a tournament ring showcasing live demonstrations highlighting the use of arms and armor are two main museum highlights. The museum also features interactive displays and state-of-the-art multimedia presentations. For more information, visit www.frazierarmsmuseum.org. There’s Much Ado in Almere, the Netherlands DooWorld, one of the first worldwide family entertainment centers that is equal parts adult and kid fun, promises a different breed of FEC. Almere—one of the newest towns in the Netherlands, initially planned as a relief area for Amsterdam—is a recreation mecca. The project was commissioned by De Vries & Vet Entertainment, and interiors and exhibitions designer Gielissen created the space, which includes the Doobay Café, DooBowling, the DooLounge Casino, DooDiner, DooLab, and, best for kids, DooLittle. Heavily themed throughout, DooBay Café is decorated top to bottom in a tropical theme, DooBowling drips with retro colors and 1970s pizazz, and the casino maintains a modern look with a huge stainless steel bar and metallic laquered ceilings. For more information about DooWorld, visit www.dooworld.nl. Double Dutch Two of Lancaster County, Pa.’s most popular attractions have created a partnership. The Strasburg Railroad, which has been chugging along for 172 years, and Dutch Wonderland, a 48-acre amusement park in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch Country have launched a cross-promotion PR campaign that has already brought excitement to the region. The campaign jointly sells tickets for both the park and the railroad from either location and markets the two attractions together. Tim Ober, operations manager at Dutch Wonderland, is one of the biggest proponents of the partnership. An afficionado of classic trains, Ober loaned his own collection to the recent addition of Dutch Wonderland’s Discover Lancaster County’s History Museum. The museum incorporated his collection into the model train display, which was designed and built by three Dutch Wonderland employees. “We want to see people relive their childhood memories,” says Ober. “It’s been a lot of fun to have this much room to set up my train display. I don’t have this kind of room at home.” The relationship began several years ago when Lynn Motiger, the president of the Strasburg Railroad, approached Dutch Wonderland to sponsor the train ride, says Lisa Side, marketing manager for Dutch Wonderland. Side says it was an obvious partnership for both entities. “There’s an interactive replica steam valve—you can turn the crank and see how the steam valve operated,” she says. The relationship is great for both parties, she says, because it encourages visitors to stay overnight and experience both attractions. Side also says Dutch Wonderland and the Strasburg Railroad have similar values—celebrating a time before cars and traffic jams. The train resides east of the sleepy little town of Strasburg in Amish Country, where, more than 40 years ago, a group of train enthusiasts brought an aging railroad back to life. Through personal dedication and ingenuity, the volunteers restored America’s oldest short-line railroad and turned it into a premier tourism attraction drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. Dutch Wonderland is also debuting two new shows this summer—Pirates of Buckaneer Isle and Adventures of the Frog Prince, written exclusively for the park. For more information, visit www.dutchwonderland.com or www.strasburgrailroad.com.