Discovery Place Science

The institution began in 1946 as a small museum on Cecil Street, founded by Charlotte schoolteacher Laura Owens. In 1951 a Children's Nature Center opened beside the new Freedom Park, with a focus on bringing families and the natural world together, and a planetarium was added in 1965. During the 1970s the organization was renamed the Charlotte Nature Museum.

Interest in science education grew during the space race, and Charlotte backed the idea of a hands-on science and technology center. It was sited on North Tryon Street partly to spur development in Uptown. The new museum opened in 1981 as Discovery Place, with about 72,000 square feet and Russell Peithman as its first director.

Several expansions followed. Exhibition space for traveling shows was added in 1986, and in 1991 the IMAX Dome Theatre opened as the first giant-screen theater in the Carolinas; the Charlotte Observer secured the naming rights. A parking and education complex, the Carol Grotnes Belk Education and Parking Complex, was finished in 1996. An 18-month, $31.6 million renovation significantly redeveloped the museum in 2010, and in 2014 an Education Studio at the Bank of America STEM Center for Career Development opened on the Uptown campus to provide STEM teacher training.

In 2016, for its 70th anniversary, the organization restructured under a single name with three brands: Discovery Place Science (the Uptown museum), Discovery Place Nature (the former Charlotte Nature Museum beside Freedom Park and the Little Sugar Creek Greenway, now listed by the museum as the Charlotte Museum of Nature), and Discovery Place Kids, which has locations in Huntersville and Rockingham. This page covers the Uptown science museum only.

The museum's own site lists the Charlotte IMAX Dome Theatre, which also runs Digistar 7 planetarium shows, along with live programs such as Science at the Stage and Nose-to-Nose, the World Alive animal exhibit, Cool Stuff physics demonstrations, KidScience for ages 0 to 7, and Thinker Space, a maker studio. It also schedules sensory-friendly hours and adult-only evenings through the year. Exhibitions and films rotate, so the lineup you see will depend on when you go; check Discovery Place for the current schedule, hours, and ticketing.

The museum also rents out event space, which it describes as ranging from a few dozen guests in its education studio to the whole building.

Because the museum is a place where families and school-age children tend to spend a few hours, a private vehicle and driver with door-to-door pickup is a comfortable fit: no parking garage to find, and the group can leave when the children are ready, not on a shuttle timetable. Your Voyzo driver can pair it with other Uptown stops. Check the museum directly for current hours, programs, and access details.