OAKLAND — Chabot Space & Science Center’s sleek new outdoor environmental educational deck is ready to welcome visitors hoping to get a little closer to nature.
Designed as a multi-use space for a dozen new exhibits, First Friday happenings and camping under the stars, the 3,200-square-foot deck was officially dedicated at an outdoor ribbon-cutting ceremony March 21.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, Chabot Space & Science Center Executive Director Adam Tobin and East Bay Regional Park District administrators and board members were on hand to inaugurate the new feature, which was conceived and designed by The Exploratorium’s Studio of Public Space in San Francisco. It joins the center’s trio of giant telescopes, planetarium and program offerings, including classes, workshops and events.
Calling Chabot “an incredible gift” and a jewel for the city of Oakland, Mayor Schaaf praised the deep partnerships between the nonprofit foundation that operates the center and public entities such as the city, the East Bay Regional Park District and Oakland Unified School District.
The mayor also urged people of all ages to play and connect with the environment by visiting Chabot, which is nestled among the redwoods along Skyline Boulevard.
Describing Oakland as a city that values education, Schaaf said that while the center is youth-centered, it has much to offer adults.
“It is never too late for any of us to learn, and it is never too late for us to nurture a sense of global citizenship by connecting our young people with nature and with the universe,” she said.
Executive director Tobin, who came to Chabot in 2015 from The Exploratorium, also stressed the center’s role in educating the community.
“We believe that the skills we help create up here are what we need, what our city needs, what our country needs,” Tobin said. “Has there ever been a more important time to build the skills of critical thinking?”
In addition to helping visitors gain new perspectives on the heavens by providing them with an outdoor platform and tools such as a polished sky mirror, camera obscuras and a heliostat to track the movement of the sun, the new deck features exhibits that bring people closer to earth.
A lab bench is equipped with stations for field drawings and rubbings, and a magnifier allows for up close viewing of plants, rocks and other natural material. There’s also an immersive sound observatory where users can listen to such phenomena as a horse munching on oats, the thunderous rumbling of the 2011 Tohoku, Japan, earthquake and tsunami, and geysers erupting at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.
Years in the making, the $2 million project was funded with proceeds from Measure WW, a $500 million park bond measure approved by voters in 2008. The East Bay Regional Park District provided $1 million from the bond funds, and the city provided an additional $1 million from bond funds it received from the park district for Oakland parks.
Lauding the park district’s long partnership with Chabot, East Bay Regional Park District General Manager Robert Doyle said he was glad to see the deck come together.
“This has been a long time coming,” he said.
The deck opens to the public April 7.