June 10, 2025 – The Discovery Center opened two new permanent exhibits this morning that explore how our communities take shape — from the flow of rivers to the rise of skylines.

The two exhibits include Top City Build, construction exhibit in which visitors are invited to design, stack, and construct their own city inspired by Topeka’s history and architecture. Visitors will learn how buildings rise, bridges connect, and people shape the places we live. Top City Build includes a historical interactives exploring the history of Gage Park, Topeka-themed plastic brick building tables, an interactive Kansas Capitol building created from Imagination Playground blocks, Keva Plank building stations, kid-powered crane, and a blacklight building section where visitors can experiment with architectural shapes to create their own skyline.

The second exhibit, Kansas Water, invites visitors to splash, pump, and play at an interactive water table that brings Kansas’s rivers, rain, and reservoirs to life. Visitors will discover how water moves, sustains, and grows our state by building their own locks, dams, drainage systems, ports and tributaries. The water table includes a ball launch, adaptable aqueducts, dam building, water vortex, pipe building, hand pumps, fog mushroom, make-a-fountain, and a hand wheel operated water Bernoulli!

These two exhibits are the latest in the Building Discovery expansion project. Supporters can support future exhibits like these by purchasing tiles to raise funds for the project.