Rafael Viñoly, designer of the Tokyo International Forum, the Kimmel Center for the Performing arts in Philadelphia, and New York's forthcoming Frederick P. Rose Hall for Jazz at Lincoln Center, is the architect of the brightly colored addition to the 103-year-old museum. "I think there needs to be an awareness that buildings you put up have a real effect on a city, on people's lives," Viñoly says. "Architecture is a force for creating civic pride. And in the case of Brooklyn Children's Museum, also a force for shaping the creativity of young minds."

The expansion will greatly enhance the largely below-grade museum's street presence, connecting the original 51,000-sf building with the 51,000-sf expansion through 3,000 sf of renovated space. The new construction will be fully integrated with the Museum's present building through a series of corridors, staircases, and wheelchair-accessible ramps.

The new design incorporates glass walls on the first floor to make the upper story appear suspended in space. At night, the building will emit a soft glow through its glass walls and the second-floor "porthole" windows. The L-shaped building's upper floor--mostly new exhibit space--will be cantilevered above the ground floor, sheltering the lower floor from direct sunlight while still allowing people inside to see the surrounding neighborhood and Brower Park.