The Orlando Science Center recently completed a huge installation called Life. The exhibits cost 13.5 million and was paid for by private donors along with $10 million from Orange County from Tourist Development Tax dollars.

I was asked to come in and sketch in the final days of construction. I started with the Swamp. The body of water and the huge cypress tree trunk at the base of the stairwells was already there but other animals were added along with the baby alligators and turtles. The gators spend much of their time sunning themselves under the heat lamps.

Life is the largest and most complex exhibit the Science Center has ever built. The exhibit teaches the story of the planet through the animals that call it home. The exhibit focuses on three distinct environments, the Swamp, the Rainforest and the Ocean.

A habitrail was set up in the ceiling of the Swamp which will allow squirrels to scamper above guests heads. The squirrels had just been introduced to their new home and were too shy to venture out while I was there sketching. A small owl watched me warily the whole time I sketched. Since the exhibit wasn’t yet open, I felt quite at peace working away on the sketches. I could hear crowds of screaming children running up the stairs of the museum but from where I was it was quite peaceful. I wondered what the owl though of all the screams.