Conceived as an outdoor exhibit to engage and enthrall children on their way into the Museum, the Cretaceous Garden was designed around a 21’ life-sized sculpture of a Torosaurus which dominates the street frontage of the building. The plant beds display cretaceous era plants and their descendants, the walkways reveal the footprints of contemporaneous dinosaurs, and the plaza features fractured red stone that mimics the red mud plates that characterized the cretaceous landscape.

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Towers|Golde worked closely with museum staff and consulting paleontologists to create a carefully sequenced visitor arrival experience that encourages discovery as it educates and modulates movement. A protected gathering space for small classes was off-set to allow through pedestrian traffic as well as separation from the street. The design anticipates future developments to both the north and the south.