A walkable cardboard maze of Detroit landmarks opens inside the Michigan Science Center on Saturday, May 9. The Skillman Foundation, Ford Philanthropy, and Welch Packaging are the presenting sponsors. Admission is included with general Science Center entry.
The maze is built in seven sections, each anchored to a Detroit neighborhood. Eastside is Belle Isle, the Heidelberg Project, and Indian Village. Downtown is the Spirit of Detroit and Hart Plaza. Southwest and Corktown is Michigan Central Station and Tiger Stadium. Riverfront is the Aretha Franklin Amphitheater. West Side is Palmer Park and Boston Edison. New Center and North End is the Fisher Building, the Ford Piquette Plant, and Hitsville U.S.A. Midtown is Eastern Market.
The corrugated material is from Welch Packaging, the Indiana-based fabricator with a Detroit footprint. The maze is sized for full ADA accessibility, with multiple exits and a cleared path for visitors who do not want to navigate the full route.
The Science Center is on John R Street at the southern edge of Midtown, in the building that opened as the New Detroit Science Center in 1948 and was renamed Michigan Science Center in 2012 after the Ford-led reopening. The cardboard maze installs in the temporary exhibit hall.
Two adjacent activations come with the build. Visitors can program robots through smaller cardboard mazes, and an outdoor cardboard-construction area runs build-your-own structures. Both are pitched at the Science Center's primary K-8 audience.
This is the kind of programming the museum does well: a constructed, walkable, photographable installation built from a recognizable Detroit visual vocabulary, sized for a school-group rotation. The Heidelberg replica will photograph the best.
5020 John R St., Midtown.
