Glasgow Science Centre

Glasgow Science Centre is a visitor attraction located on the south bank of the River Clyde in Glasgow, Scotland. It is a purpose-built science centre composed of three principal buildings which are the Science Mall, an IMAX cinema and the Glasgow Tower. The Scottish tourist board, VisitScotland, awarded Glasgow Science Centre, located in the Clyde Waterfront Regeneration area, a five star rating in the visitor attraction category. As well as its main location, Glasgow Science Centre also manages the visitor centre at Whitelee Wind Farm, which opened to the public in 2009.

Science Mall
The Science Mall is a titanium-clad crescent shape structure. In architectural terms it represents the canted hull of a ship, a reference to the adjacent 'canting basin', where vessels were brought to have the marine growth removed from their hulls. The building houses three floors of over 250 science-learning exhibits, themed around three concepts, being 'explore and discover', 'science in action' and 'science and you'. As is usual for science centres, the exhibits aim to encourage interaction, and can be used or played with as part of the informal learning experience the centre aims to deliver. Visitors can access a Science Show Theatre and the Glasgow Science Centre Planetarium. The planetarium contains a Zeiss optical-mechanical projector that projects images of the night sky onto a 15m diameter dome.

IMAX Cinema
The IMAX cinema was the first IMAX cinema to be built in Scotland. The single auditorium seats 370 in front of a rectangular screen measuring 82 feet by 62 feet (25 m by 18.9 m) and has the capability to show 3D films as well as standard 2D films in IMAX format. It opened to the public in October 2000, several months prior to the opening of the two other buildings. On 6 September 2013, Cineworld agreed a 10 year lease to operate the IMAX cinema and opened a Starbucks on site.

Glasgow Tower
The Glasgow Tower was designed to be the tallest freely-rotating tower in the world. It missed its opening date in 2001 and has been plagued by problems ever since. It has been closed for over 80% of its life, and has currently been closed since August 2010.

History
Opened to the public in June 2001, Glasgow Science Centre is part of the on-going redevelopment of Pacific Quay, an area which was once a cargo port known as Prince's Dock. The redevelopment started with the Glasgow Garden Festival in 1988. As with the other National Garden Festivals, the 100 acre Glasgow site was intended to be sold off for housing development, but due to a housing slump in 1987, the developers were unable to develop the land as they intended, and the majority of the site remained derelict for years. Parts were finally redeveloped for the Science Centre and also Pacific Quay, including new headquarters for BBC Scotland and Scottish Television, opened in 2007. The Clydesdale Bank Tower was dismantled and re-erected in Rhyl in North Wales, however its spiritual successor came in the form of the Glasgow Tower as part of Science Centre complex, which stands on approximately the same spot.

The architects of the Glasgow Science Centre were Building Design Partnership, however the Glasgow Tower was originally designed by the architect Richard Horden with engineering design by Buro Happold. It was built at a cost of around £75 million, including £10 million for the Glasgow Tower, with over £37 million coming from the Millennium Commission.

Funding issues
In June 2004, it was announced that about a fifth of the workforce were to be made redundant following the creation of a funding deal with the Scottish Executive. In June 2008, the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, Nicol Stephen, stated that Glasgow Science Centre was facing a 40% cut in government funding. Prime Minister Gordon Brown commented on this issue during Prime Minister's Question Time saying, "It's unfortunate in Glasgow that as a result of the SNP, funding has been cut, and they will live to regret that". Although funding for the Scottish Science Centres as a whole has actually increased, it is now being split between four centres using a formula based on visitor numbers, and Glasgow is the only centre to face a reduction in budget. This led to the announcement in July 2008 that 28 full-time jobs were to be cut as a direct consequence of the cuts "in order to secure Glasgow Science Centre's future", according to the Chief Executive, Kirk Ramsay.

In the media
Glasgow Science Centre is located in the Pacific Quay area, and as such, is surrounded by the media centres that form the Digital Media Quarter, a Scottish Enterprise development initiative, With the opening of the new STV headquarters in June 2006 and the beginning of broadcast programming from BBC Pacific Quay in the summer of 2004, it can be expected that more programming will be filmed in the area.

In the CBeebies television programme Nina and the Neurons, the title character Nina is a neuroscientist who works at Glasgow Science Centre. In reality, Nina is played by the actress Katrina Bryan who is not a staff member at Glasgow Science Centre.

Several programmes including CBBC's Do Something Different were filmed in and out of Glasgow Science Centre.