After Years of Development, Outdoor Adventure Center Opens

Detroit's newest museum, the Outdoor Adventure Center, has a long, storied road to development beginning with its site (the former Globe Trading Co) and ending with five years of work to transform the building into a state-of-the-art nature experience. The center opened just three weeks ago, and its attractions include a 40-foot-tall interactive tree sculpture, a life-size beaver lodge and an eagle's nest, along with a 3,000-gallon aquarium. The aquatic features don't end with the fish—the center also includes a massive, 36-foot indoor waterfall.

The Outdoor Adventure Center also offers simulator experiences, giving visitors the feeling of driving an off-road vehicle, stepping onboard a biplane, riding a bike, kayaking, canoeing and fishing. If you loved the Hunger Games, Robin Hood or even William Tell, there's an indoor archery range where you can try your hand (and bow) at target shooting (you will need a reservation, or to be part of a class for this).

While the outside-inside experience is front and center, the OAC hasn't forgotten the building's roots—The Globe was a foundry and car making factory a hundred years ago, and the OAC maintains much of the historical character of the site, keeping the original brick walls, and highlighting its cast iron and Wellman supporting trusses. There's an exhibit at the center that explores the building's unique backstory. The center offers many fascinating experiences. For $150, you can have a child's birthday party here. You can also sleep in the center, in a yurt, and experience camping…indoors. The center boasts not one, but two, indoor hunting blinds where you can see what it might be like to stalk birds with a rifle at 5 am (no real guns here, of course).

The center is open Wednesdays-Fridays from 10 am - 4 pm, Saturdays from 10 am - 5 pm, and Sundays from noon until 5 pm. Admission is just $5 for adults and $3 for seniors and children under 12. A family membership to the center is $50 a year.

·Outdoor Adventure Center [Outdoor Adventure Center]
·Riverfront Renovation: Globe Trading Building Starting Soon [Curbed Detroit]
·Re-Imagining the Detroit Dry Dock/Globe Trading Building [Curbed Detroit]