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The National Building Museum's blockbuster ball pit is coming to Tampa next month

2016-07-19T18:35:00-04:00

How can anyone forget Snarkitecture's giant monochromatic ball pit that took over the National Building Museum's Great Hall last summer? Following a wildly successful run that attracted a record-breaking 160,000 visitors, The BEACH is making a comeback at the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida starting August 5. Plus, general admission is free!

Photos by Noah Kalina.

It also looks like the installation is coming back bigger than before, spanning 15,000 square feet with a 75-foot-wide “shoreline”, and comprising 1.2 million of the antimicrobial plastic balls. The NBM version was 10,000 square feet, and its more than 650,000 plastic balls were reused in Hou de Sousa's winning design of the Dupont Underground's Re-Ball! competition. No word as of yet if and how the Tampa installation will be recycled.

If you plan on diving into the ball pit at the arena, keep a close watch on your loose belongings when “splashing” around. The Tampa Bay Times writes that more than 1,000 items were lost at the...

National Building Museum turns to Indiegogo to fund upcoming BEACH installation

2015-06-02T14:17:00-04:00

Last summer, the National Building Museum in DC installed BIG's giant wooden maze in its atrium, and attracted over 50,000 visitors. Exactly a year later, the museum is planning another large-scale public installation to draw blockbuster attendance: BEACH, a playa-themed ball-pit for the museum's atrium. Brooklyn-based firm Snarkitecture is designing the enclosure that will house around 750,000 translucent balls, and a variety of beachy objects like beach chairs, umbrellas, and a snack shack. BEACH will open on July 4th of this year – that is, if the Museum can raise the money. Today, NBM announced that it was turning to Indiegogo to crowdfund $10,000 for the installation and related summer programming.

Snarkitecture's BEACH installation was first announced back in April, with no mention of the Indiegogo campaign. As an independent non-profit 501(c)(3), the Museum supports its exhibitions through admissions and outside contributions, but this will be its first crowdfunding effort. It...