There are some "crazy" happenings off St. Laurent Boulevard in Ottawa's south east end.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum, under wraps for the last 3 years, is inching towards its official reopening.
And with that, one very popular exhibit.
The museum on Lancaster Road was shut down in September of 2014 for major repairs.
But it is scheduled to reopen to the public November 17th.
Ottawa's mayor Jim Watson has a definite lean to the left, but not necessarily the political kind of lean. He, along with several members of the media, were invited to a sneak preview of the construction work being done at the museum and one of the key draws there, the Crazy Kitchen.
“Do you feel like you’re at a city council meeting?” jokes Christina Tessier, the Director General of the Canada Science and Technology Museum, as they both struggle through the kitchen, with its floor tilted at 12 degrees.
“My first recollection of this museum,” Watson says afterwards, “is on field trip from my home town in Lachute, Quebec and remembering the Crazy Kitchen.”
The Crazy Kitchen, one of the original exhibits of the Canada Science and Tech Museum when it opened in 1967, will still be front and centre of the new improved museum.
“It's been rebuilt 3 times within the museum,” says Fernand Proulx, the Museum’s Chief Operating Officer, “it moved around a little bit but the concept, it's still true to its original design.”
That can’t be said of the rest of the museum, and with reason. A leaky roof and mold shut this facility down in September of 2014. An $80 million dollar injection of federal funds has breathed new life into it and offered a rare opportunity to expand this space to double the number of artifacts on display.
“Some of the true treasures of Canada, the innovations that show how we have evolved as Canadians, we will now be able to see, which have been hidden for last 50 years.”
The locomotives will still be on site, too but there are 11 new exhibits, allowing visitors to explore our beginnings, our environment and our way of life.
Christina Tessier says it is difficult to identify which one stands out most to her.
“I can say the Sound by Design exhibition will be interesting,” she says, “It’s not just about the science of sound but about silence, too, and offers a look at soundscape where people's bodies are interactive and make sound.”
And still in the planning and fundraising stage, a four-season science park outside, on the grounds of the museum that will help kids both big and small learn science through play.
The designer of the Crazy Kitchen was a man named John Arnold, who was also the head of design for the whole museum. Arnold passed away a few weeks ago just months shy of the museum's re-opening.
