Architecture in Sync with Science Founded in 1964, the center has spread its wings in a new location, more than doubling its space from a downtown office building to a purpose-built museum of soaring ceilings, catwalks and skylights. The new center, which retrofits the 1924 Central High School into its structure, stretches like a giant overturned canoe along the banks of the Scioto River in the heart of the Ohio capital. COSI now has eight permanent, immersive Learning Worlds coupled with two traveling displays and performances by the center's Spectrum Players. In addition, the Extreme Screen shows films such as Dolphins seven stories high. The Dome Theater reveals the heavens above, while the Simex Motion Simulator captures life through the eyes of wolves or even explorers reaching for Mars.
Kids rush to spot clues, solve riddles and, ultimately, open the doors to the ancient observatory.
But to decipher all the 'ancient' languages takes longer. One family came down here every Saturday from Michigan just to work on the Valley of the Unknown. It took them two months to solve it all. After triumphing among the Valley's ruins, families head to the Ocean. They simply follow the sounds of dripping, spraying, rushing water to Poseidon's fountain, set in a dark dreamscape spun around the mythical pull of water.