The SMUD Museum of Science and Curiosity (MOSAC) was set to break ground Tuesday, Oct. 20, on a new 1,500-square-foot facility called Wonder Works. The roughly $850,000 project at the museum’s campus at 400 Jibboom St. in Sacramento’s River District will give staff space to build, maintain and store exhibits.
Jon Delling designed the prefabricated building to complement the museum’s historic power station structure, and TriVel Construction is working with him on design and construction planning. The museum received its building permit last week. Construction is tentatively scheduled to be finished in January or early February, ahead of an April 2027 grant deadline.
Museum board President Steve Hansen said the project is fully funded. The money comes from Proposition 68, the 2018 California bond measure for parks, environmental and community projects. The state increased MOSAC’s original grant by a little more than $500,000 earlier this year after construction costs came in above the first estimates.
The added funding let the museum move forward without scaling back the plan. Wonder Works is meant to ease the limits of the museum’s current space, where the exhibits team has had little room to work and store pieces. Hansen told the Sacramento Business Journal the extra capacity could eventually help MOSAC serve more schools, though no attendance projections or outside partners have been announced yet.
