A campus-wide renovation of the Bay Area Discovery Museum is finally complete, providing a much-needed upgrade to the 30-year-old institution that emphasizes a new approach to museum programming and early childhood education.

The $18.5 million project was overseen by Olson Kundig, who transformed the Fort Baker campus into an immersive center for learning while maintaining the architectural integrity of surrounding Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The firm has also recently completed an elaborate Noah’s Ark-themed children’s museum in Berlin. 

The firm installed five new permanent exhibitions, a STEM classroom, and activity spaces in addition to repurposing two existing buildings in an expanded master plan that incorporated research-driven methodologies and a focus on experiential learning. 

“We know that children are not exposed to design and engineering at an early enough age, so BADM’s mission to introduce STEM concepts through play and creative experiences is exciting,” Olson Kundig Principal Alan Maskin said in a statement. “The museum builds on this idea by creating an environment where access to that vital learning is explicitly equitable and every visitor has the opportunity to integrate that type of thinking into their life—the potential for where that can lead these children is limitless.”

“It was the opportunity of a lifetime to have design partners like Alan and Marlene on our project,” BADM’s CEO Kelly McKinley said of the design team. “They are insatiably curious about how children learn best. They understand the unmatched power of play and delight in transforming children’s understanding of their world. And they create, as a result, beautiful and imaginative environments that captivate young children, and their parents to boot.”