Eugene Science Center Plans Outdoor Park to Double Capacity, Open Summer 2026

The Eugene Science Center on Jan. 16 unveiled plans to build an Outdoor Science Park adjacent to its current campus, a project designed to double the facility's capacity and reduce chronic crowding for school field trips, summer camps, and weekend visitors. The expansion will add six large hands-on exhibits, a collection of smaller in-house-built displays, and a dedicated early-education area focused on outdoor, tactile learning. The center serves roughly 40,000 visitors a year and also houses a planetarium and indoor interactive exhibits.

Doubling capacity could, in theory, allow the center to accommodate as many as 80,000 annual visits, easing scheduling bottlenecks that have limited school bookings and constrained summer-camp enrollment. For Lane County educators and parents, that increase would translate into more available field-trip slots, shorter waitlists for popular programs, and greater flexibility for hands-on science learning outside classroom walls.

The proposed park emphasizes play-based and tactile approaches to early education, reflecting broader pedagogical interest in outdoor learning and nature-based STEM activities. Outdoor exhibits can extend the center's programming beyond the footprint of its indoor galleries, allowing simultaneous school groups and public visitors to use different parts of the campus without overcrowding. For teachers, expanded capacity means more reliable options for curriculum-linked visits; for families, it promises less congested weekend experiences and more free-roam exploration for young children.

Economic and community effects extend beyond education. Increased visitation typically translates into greater foot traffic for nearby restaurants, shops, and service providers in Eugene and the broader Willamette Valley. For nonprofit operators like the science center, a bigger footprint can improve revenue diversity through ticketed outdoor programs, memberships, and facility rentals during shoulder seasons. The center is actively fundraising to cover remaining project costs and aims to complete construction and open the park in summer 2026.

The announcement arrives amid persistent local demand for experiential science programming and growing public appetite for outdoor activities that combine learning with safe, open-air spaces. If the center reaches its fundraising targets and stays on schedule, Lane County schools and summer programs should see additional booking capacity for the 2026-27 school year and summer season.

For Eugene residents, the Outdoor Science Park promises more accessible, hands-on science opportunities for children and families, relief for crowded field-trip calendars, and potential boosts to nearby businesses. Next steps will hinge on fundraising and permitting; if those proceed smoothly, the new park should be welcoming its first visitors by summer 2026.