Downtown Phoenix is about to get a lot greener — and a lot more curious. On November 14, 2026, Arizona Science Center cuts the ribbon on its new Garden Exhibits, an expansion of its CREATE maker campus at 600 E. Washington Street that turns an outdoor garden into a playground of hands-on science under the desert sky.
The Garden Exhibits extend the spirit of CREATE at Arizona Science Center, the center’s popular maker space where guests build, tinker and experiment with real tools and materials. Outside in the garden, that same do-it-yourself energy meets fresh air and sunshine: families can explore, construct and play together in a setting designed to spark questions. It is the kind of opening that makes science feel less like a classroom and more like an adventure.
The new garden joins a campus already packed with reasons to visit Heritage and Science Park. Inside the striking main building, more than 300 hands-on exhibits invite kids to feel the force of a hurricane, lie on a bed of nails and explore the wonders of the human body, while the Dorrance Planetarium — one of the largest and most advanced in the United States — sends audiences soaring through the universe in its giant NanoSeam dome theater.
Phoenix families looking for a bright November outing now have a fresh excuse to head downtown. Arrive curious, plan to stay a while, and let the Garden Exhibits grow a new generation of Arizona makers, builders and stargazers.
Photo: Visitor7, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
