Cayton Children's Museum

• Prize
  Winner in Others Space Design
• Company/Firm
  Officeuntitled
• Designer
  OFFICEUNTITLED
• Other Credit
  Client : ShareWell
• Location
  Santa Monica, USA
• Project Date
  2020

Bringing play indoors, the Cayton Children’s Museum was designed as a series of unexpected spaces that inspire kids to learn about and engage in their community. The 20,095 SF museum adaptively reuses part of the upper floor of Santa Monica Place, a retail center originally designed by Frank Gehry, by transforming a former artisanal food hall into the home of a Museum dedicated to the imagination and wonderment of being a kid.


Imagined as an inclusive space for free and safe discovery, the museum’s non-linear design relies on a network of freestanding, tactile objects purposefully sited to frame portions of the five exhibit neighborhoods while not revealing the entirety of the museum’s total offerings at once. The free plan approach affords each visitor the opportunity to chart their own “Path of Awesome” through the more than 30 exhibits focused on helping kids play their way to a better world.