This museum hosts indoor and outdoor exhibits on literacy, health and wellness, environmental education and arts and culture. The 56,000 sf, LEED Silver museum sits beautifully on less than one acre, cantilevered over a lagoon and consists of two, 2-story buildings joined by a fritted glass and steel connector. Both buildings are constructed of a steel and metal framed structure with a fiber cement panel and glass curtainwall exterior skin. The south wing contains a literacy center, parent / teacher resource center, book and toy store, administrative areas and a 165-seat full-service café named Acorn operated by Dickie Brennan & Co. The north wing houses two floors of indoor exhibit galleries that include re-imagined beloved exhibits – the grocery store and bubble studio – and a 100-foot-long Mighty Mississippi River exhibit which tells the story of the journey of the River from Lake Itasca, Minnesota, all the way to the Port of New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. Outdoors, the park like setting consists of pathways, a pedestrian bridge, decks, sensory and edible gardens, a newly restored wetland area and a floating classroom.