This week, you’re invited to see something that not every guest typically gets to see on their visit to the Science Center!

As part of our National Engineers Week activities, we’re giving tours of our secret fifth floor. Led by LSC Chief Engineer Ron Taglieri, this tour shows you all the engineering brilliance that occurs on this floor – all the boilers, chillers, pipes, cables, filters, and more marvels that keep the building running.

“On this tour, you have the opportunity to see a part of the building that isn’t in a normal visit,” Ron says. “And you get to see that we don’t just talk the talk at LSC, but we walk the walk.”

On the tour, you’ll learn all about LSC’s eco-friendly initiatives – something that Ron is especially proud of.

“I’m most proud of our new boiler installation. It saves us the most energy and is probably the most efficient equipment that we have in the building,” Ron says, adding that these pieces of equipment give LSC a 27 percent reduction in gas consumption.

Another eco-friendly piece of equipment guests will get to see are the pumps that run on variable frequency drives, which means the pumps only run at the speeds that Ron needs them to run, which reduces our electric consumption.

There is so much to discover – and on the tour, you get to see it all.

“People don’t realize that this part of the building exists and all it takes to make the building work,” Ron says. “When you walk through the door, maybe you don’t realize there are 7,000 light bulbs that bring the building to life, or all the things that give us heat and cooling, or what we have to do to keep the fish and animals happy.

“All of this is encompassed in our daily routine, so for us it’s just another day. But when a guest sees it, they get to say, ‘Wow, look what it takes to make the Science Center function.’”

Grab a hard hat and join the tour! It’s being held during our Engineering Everywhere celebration from Feb. 19 through Feb. 22.

engineering,  Engineering Everywhere,  environmental,  Ron Taglieri