The Please Touch Museum, moved in September of this year to its prestigious new home in Memorial Hall, a Beaux-Arts architectural jewel and one of the few remaining buildings from Philadelphia’s 1876 Centennial Exhibition. An ambitious building renovation returning the hall to its former glorious state preceded the exhibit work, which was split between several contractors.

USA was awarded the contract to provide the Flying Machine exhibit, a centerpiece exhibit located in the Flight Fantasy galleries. The exhibit allows visitors to build their own flying object from foam parts at one of four building stations, crank the object up a 35 foot long launcher arm, and observe and time their object as it drifts down to the landing pad below. This activity centers on a 45 foot tall rocket ship with 9 planets encircling it.

Re-Engineering the Rocket

As with many exhibits we undertake, the drawings are frequently still in the conceptual stage when we receive them – hiding many possible construction challenges and site conditions. After months of design discussions and iterations on the original design which involved USA’s designers and engineering consultant, the Please Touch Museum and their building contractor’s engineers, we had arrived at a troublesome impasse. The weight of the rocket’s super-structures was causing serious concern for the old building. Likewise, the massive structure required to meet safety standards was also looking as if it would cause a serious cost overrun.

Some components, such as the building stations and landing pad were already underway; however, the museum’s opening date was not moving and the largest and most complex elements, the rocket and the launcher arm, were not yet begun!

All the concerned parties sat down to face these unexpected issues at a round table meeting at the Please Touch Museum. By sketching together, the group had a light bulb moment – the rocket’s steel super-structure was really just dressing and had no function.

An alternate approach was drafted quickly. USA used fabric banners to represent the rocket’s framework instead of the steel legs. Fabrication continued with minimal modifications to the building; the floor load was reduced and support for the rocket was transferred to an overhead truss system mounted to the walls to stabilize the rocket and nose cone.

Construction resume quickly and with great clarity of purpose.

The Launcher Arm & Flying Objects

Our second challenge for this project was the 35 foot launcher arm and the flying objects. Visitors use the arm to attach their flying object and hand-crank it to a height inside the cone of the rocket from where it is “launched”.

The flying objects needed to be easy to assemble and disassemble into different configurations and be light and buoyant as they fell. We did not want to limit the options for kids to be creative by creating uniform kits. Velcro was eliminated as a possibility early on because it could become a costly wear item. USA prototyped with different shapes cut out of foam sheet goods in fun colors. Holes in every piece provided a way to attach the lifting hook and slots, similar to balsa wood gliders, in multiple locations on each piece provided a way to link different foam shapes to one another.

Each unique Flying Object is hand-mounted by the visitor to the Launcher Arm. Based on a previous launcher arm design USA made for CMSSLC (Columbia Memorial Space Science Learning Center), we chose a flexible, replaceable hook for carrying the objects. The hooks are engineered to hold the objects securely during travel up the crank, but not strong enough to hold the weight of unwanted objects, such as a backpack. The hooks face down so they release the objects at the top of the crank as they round over the top.

Installation of the Rocket

The installation of the rocket was a finely coordinated collaboration in a small but very tall space. USA extends our thanks to The Please Touch Museum, their contractors and engineers, CEC Engineering, Sapsis Rigging, Iron Studios, CR Cars and Visual Communications for their dedication to the project.

The success of the project is especially rewarding given the work required by this entire team to find solutions that fit the purpose, budget and schedule.

Gala Event and Opening to the Public

On October 3rd, USA was honored to attend the Gala Opening of the Please Touch Museum. It was a sumptuous evening where over 2000 guests mingled and celebrated amongst the completed exhibits. Many attendees wore PTM’s signature purple as accents to their finery.

The Please Touch Museum opened to the general public on October 18th, 2008.