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Noah's Ark theme park in Kentucky sues their insurance company over rain damage

2019-05-28T15:16:00-04:00

Genesis, this is not. This is the fate of the multimillion-dollar Noah’s Ark replica and theme park in Northern Kentucky, Ark Encounter, which is suing insurance carriers over coverage for rain-related damages to the property. The company is seeking to recoup what it says were $1 million worth of repairs, as well as attorneys’ fees and costs, and an unspecified amount of punitive damages.

Lawyers of the Ark Encounter — the buzzy Noah's Ark theme park in Williamstown, Kentucky that opened in 2016 — filed a lawsuit last Wednesday against the park's insurance company for breaching their coverage policy obligations, after heavy rains in 2017 and 2018 caused a landslide on the park's access road. Reports state that the damage was repaired and the 510-foot ark replica was not at risk.

“By refusing to pay all but a very small proportion of Plaintiffs’ covered claim, the Defendants have failed to meet their Policy obligations and failed to handle Plaintiffs’ claim properly and in good faith, causing Plaintiffs to incur significant additional loss and expense,” the lawsuit states, WLWT reports. The def.endants cited faulty workmanship as the cause of the road damage.

Correction: The headline of this post was edited to indicate that heavy rains caused property damage at Ark's Encounter, not flooding.

Olson Kundig will design the Noah's Ark-themed Children's Museum for the Jewish Museum Berlin

2016-08-03T20:25:00-04:00

Noah's Ark will be brought to life once again in the upcoming Children's Museum on the Jewish Museum Berlin campus. The Jewish Museum Berlin Foundation launched an invite-only international competition this past January wherein participants added their own spin in incorporating the biblical story in their proposals. Late last month, Seattle-based Olson Kundig Architects won the commission. Berlin-based Staab Architekten won second place, while Michael Wallraff ZT GmbH of Vienna received third.

Authored by Olson Kundig owner and principal Alan Maskin, their team's approach to the concept ultimately won the jury's favor with its playful depiction of the essential themes of the Children's Museum. Visitors both young and old will get to experience the museum as if they were Noah, exploring the space through interactive and imaginative installations that tailor to kids ages 5-12 years old.

“The design by Olson Kundig has the potential to unpack the biblical story in all its relevance, ...

LeRoy's Ark: LeRoy Troyer, the architect behind the Noah's Ark replica at Ark Encounter, Kentucky's new biblical theme park, on One-to-One #31

2016-07-18T17:11:00-04:00

The Genesis-sized replica of Noah's Ark is just the beginning of Ark Encounter, Kentucky's new biblical theme park managed by the Christian apologist ministry, Answers in Genesis. Troyer Group are the architects behind the ark, with president and chair LeRoy Troyer as the lead architect.

I spoke with LeRoy about the challenge of building a project with Biblical construction specs, as well as the inherent controversy of designing something that is meant as a kind of proof of concept for Answers in Genesis' ideology: that the Bible "is the true history book of the universe".

Listen to One-to-One #31 with LeRoy Troyer:

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Noah's Ark replica opens in Kentucky biblical theme park to “compete with the Disneys and the Universals”

2016-07-12T15:09:00-04:00

The park’s centerpiece features three decks of exhibits explaining Answers in Genesis’ views of the biblical flood account..[It] also features a two-story restaurant, aerial zipline cables and the Ararat Ridge Zoo... “...in a world that we see becoming very secularized before our eyes, it’s really time for Christians to do something of this size, of this quality, that competes with the Disneys and the Universals to get a message to the world.”

This might be worth a pitstop for anyone planning a U.S. summer road trip. Envisioned by the Creationist apologetics ministry Answers in Genesis, a replica of Noah's Ark — measuring 510 feet long, 85 feet wide and 51 feet high — opened last week as the centerpiece of the Ark Encounter theme park in Williamstown, Kentucky. As it goes, the theme park [which apparently has a total construction cost of more than $150 million] is “more than just entertainment” and aims to promote the ministry's views on evolution. As it goes, criticism ensues.

The organization behind Kentucky's Creation Museum is building a Genesis-sized Ark

2015-11-18T13:45:00-05:00

The Ark Encounter is a full-sized replica of Noah’s Ark, as described in the book of Genesis. [...] the actual ark will be 510 feet long ... 85 feet wide and more than 50 feet tall, and that's before you add the sail. It can house up to 10,000 people in a pinch, and when finished will be the largest wooden timber structure in the world. [...] “People expect the quality of a Universal Studios and we’re going to give it to them.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, other riffs on Noah's Ark have already been built (although they probably aren't scaled to cubits):