Perot Museum announces major outdoor expansion including fire tornado

DALLAS - The Perot Museum of Nature and Science announced a massive, 4-acre campus transformation. The expansion will include a forest and treetop walkway, as well as a fire tornado.

Perot Museum Expansion

What we know:

The major expansion will include immersive outdoor exhibits including a forest, treetop walkway, shaded river, paleontology garden, and pollinator garden.

Some of those exhibits will explore the forces of nature with powerful wind gusts, geysers, a mist maze, a lightning and thunder pavilion, giant water vortex, and a fire tornado.

The plans also call for a reimagined museum entrance and lobby, enhanced educational, dining, and event spaces, and new on-site parking.

What they're saying:

"It’s an exciting day for us here at the Perot Museum," said Drex Owusu, the museum’s Chief Learning Officer. "We had the privilege of announcing our intentions and plans to really transform the guest experience here at the Perot with an entirely new outdoor experience – a literal living laboratory for all things related to nature and science."

Vice President of Exhibitions Mike Spiewak said the Perot Museum of Nature and Science already does a fabulous job with the science part of its name. The expansion will step up the other half – the nature.

"We’re really excited about that because we can really focus on, you know, inside the building we focus on a lot of technology and the science is that way. But this is a way for us to talk about the natural world and really create curiosity and wonder and awe about the natural world," he said.

Spiewak hopes the nature exhibits also inspire more future STEM leaders in careers such as meteorology, wildfire suppression, or even pollination ecology.

What's next:

The project is being funded by the museum’s $185 million Curiosity Unbound campaign and is expected to break ground in early 2027. It should open in late 2028.