Occupying the town’s 1930’s-era former library building, an historic landmark, CMOE was planned, designed and built by Roto over a 2-year period, on an exhibit budget of $2.1M covering 11,500 square feet. Exhibits make clever re-use of the building’s many quirky and beautiful, divided into 4 main galleries and a flexible exhibit and event space.
Based heavily on open-ended play experiences, CMOE’s permanent galleries were designed to maximize repeat visitation while reflecting key attributes of the community. Many exhibits were developed specifically for the rooms and spaces of the original library building, cleaned-up but un-refurbished, nevertheless wholly transformed by Roto’s design.
Extensive interactive engineering was invested in the Museum’s grandest gallery, a mash-up of Evansville’s manufacturing pedigree and their popular annual floating yellow duck race. “Quack Factory” delivers duck-themed water and ball play, a 9-foot water vortex, a seven-story flying duck balloon, and a giant animated duck climbing structure.