The city’s Planning Commission approved the use of 5.38 acres of land on the edge of the Sacramento River for the development of the Powerhouse Science Center – a project that will transform the historic Pacific Gas & Electric power station into a high-tech, hands-on, science museum. The $50 million project was unanimously approved at the Planning Commission meeting Thursday. The Powerhouse project, a design-build project by local firms Dreyfus & Blackford Architects and Otto Construction, will be a relocation and expansion of the existing Sacramento Discovery Museum Science and Space Center located on Auburn Boulevard. “The new (science) center will provide clear ways for us to explore

Rare artifacts will be unveiled this month in a new exhibit documenting the culture and contributions of California's first people at the California Museum in Sacramento. A huge stuffed condor from the Smithsonian, Modoc chief Captain Jack's buckskin jacket and a cape and arrowhead that belonged to Ishi, reputedly the last Native American to live a primitive life in California, will be showcased in "California Indians: Making A Difference," which opens March 31. "We have some objects that have never been on exhibit before," said curator P. Christiaan Klieger, an anthropologist affiliated with the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. "It's not your typical sort of basket exhib

Ever wanted to create your own doodle on the Google homepage? Three local companies — Digital Deployment, Fuel Creative Group and JM Design — teamed up to create two web-based kiosks enabling you to do just that. They’re located in the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City. “Doodle 4 Google: If I Could Do Anything, I Would...” features the kiosks alongside 40 doodles from children whose art finishes the sentence, “If I could do anything, I would...” The winning drawing was featured on the Google homepage last month. The kiosks also debuted in the exhibit last month, allowing visitors to draw custom doodles and e-mail them to themselves or friends from the mu