Chicago Scenic Studios, Inc.(CCSI) partnered with the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago to build an extension of the Museum's popular Hands-on Habitat exhibit. Designed for children ages three to seven, the exhibit serves as a 1,300 square foot space for kids to learn about natural wetlands, prairie environments and the animals living in these natural settings
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Chicago Scenic designers Tom Ryan, Robert Kovach and Ryan Hall worked closely with the Museum's team which included Mike Sarna, director of exhibits/designs, Dawn Bennett, production supervisor of exhibits/designs and Brian Cavanaugh, senior exhibit designer, to design and build expansion activities to help children discover the lifecycle of trees and the animals inhabiting them.

CSSI created a permanent three-story tree house, interactive activities, such as Animal Apartments and Where Do I Live? as well as a redesign of a section of the Museum's original exhibit that would allow more room for these exciting new additions. All of the elements were specifically designed low to the ground to be easily accessible for children and to encourage adults to get down to their youngster's level to experience the wonders of the exhibit. CSSI's Ken Zommer served as the project manager, and Andy Lemerand and Mike Zaremba served as job leads.

CSSI completed the project installation in about a month. The elements included:

35' Tall Tree House

The main focal point of the Museum's Hands-on Habitat exhibit is a 35' tall, three level tree house. Through an interactive display located on the first level, kids can discover how a tree absorbs nutrients with its roots in the ground and also experience what it feels like to go down a worm slide.

A giant climbing net was built between the first and second floors to allow children to climb from one level to another. The second level includes a hollowed-out tree trunk as well as a set of "bug binoculars" that allow participants to see the world with segmented vision -- like a fly.

The third level, which is handicap/wheelchair accessible, has a wind machine kids can operate to blow seed pods and leaves from the tree. Kids can also operate easy-to use crank handles to move the wings of insects flying overhead -- such as bees, butterflies and dragonflies.

The tree house consists of a steel structure that was welded by Andy Lemerand and covered in wood by Mike Zaremba. The trunk of the tree was covered in carved foam and painted by Kevin Taylor. Recycled products were used whenever possible. In order to make room for the new tree

house, Chicago Scenic removed an office space in the gallery. Throughout the install process, the Museum allowed visitors to view the installation of the tree house from a second floor overlook.

What's A Living Thing?

In addition to learning about the lifecycle of trees, CSSI built an activity called What's A Living Thing?, which helps children determine if something is alive or not by comparing living and inanimate objects. For this interactive activity, CSSI created a large wood panel with graphics of different objects and doors that reveal the answer when lifted.

Animal Apartments

Another activity CSSI created was the Animal Apartments. For this project, the company provided a faux hollowed out log so children could explore how different types of animals make a log into their home.

Where Do I Live

Where Do I Live? allows children to place animals into their appropriate home environment. To achieve the right look and feel to this project, CSSI applied a painted mural to existing metal doors and provided animal magnets that could be placed in a tree, cave, underground, pond or hollow log.

Help Me Hide

The activity Help Me Hide encourages children to use an animal's natural camouflage to take cover in a particular environment. For example, CSSI built an owl graphic which disappears in the foliage of some trees.

Caves And Prairies

Lastly, CSSI enhanced the prairie display by using an existing cave area within the exhibit and creating a built-in periscope that allows kids to go inside a cave and look through the periscope to see what types of animals inhabited the prairie above. CSSI worked in conjunction with a variety of Museum departments (education, engineering and graphics) to deliver all the requested elements on time and on budget. eb