The ongoing construction of Explora‘s 8,000-square-foot X Studio Teen Center in Albuquerque, which has been in the works since 2019, is now being facilitated by a $250,000 grant from Bank of America. Studio Southwest Architects and the general contractor, FacilityBuild, are the two Albuquerque companies currently working on this project, which is still a few months away from completion.
The X Studio Teen Center is being developed as part of the Explora Museum’s Master Plan to set up a Career STEAM Learning Campus, aimed at creating exciting long-term careers for youths. According to Nyra Klawer, Explora’s Capital Campaign Manager, construction on the teen center is expected to be finished by the spring or early summer of 2022, and this timeframe is dependent on the arrival date of the construction materials.
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New X Studio Teen Center to double number of paid internships offered
X Studio Teen Center, upon completion, will expand the current 50,000-square-foot Explora campus by an additional 8,000-square-feet of learning space; which will cater to thousands of teens every year and offer extensive educational programs in several areas which include physics, chemistry, coding and engineering. Klawer pointed out that the Explora campus offers about 35 paid internships presently, but the X studio expansion would enable Explora to double the current number of paid internships offered in the first couple of years.
In addition to the X Studio Teen Center development, Explora is already working towards the second phase of its “Cradle through Career” campaign. Klawer mentioned that the fundraising for the phase II is officially in progress, and Explora is hoping to raise upto $10 million to build its Brillante Early Learning Center over a three year period. The Brillante Early Learning Center will feature a day center, preschool, laboratory and a place for young parents to continue their education and obtain accreditations.
Klawer gave more details on the future Early Learning Center project, which he said will be developed on a 4.5 acre-site that is currently being rented by Array Technologies, and this campus will be positioned behind Explora’s natural history museum. Klawer also mentioned that the Early Learning Center would be much bigger in comparison to the 8,000-square-foot X Studio Teen Center, and would have enough room to house between 10-15 classrooms.
