PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM 95 As a Bay Area transplant, George vividly recalls the first time he visited the Exploratorium. “It was a big, hollow, cavernous place—and I just fell in love with it,” he says. “It was a magical place of people experiencing things and learning things, and you could see curiosity in people’s eyes.” Coming from a physics background, he relished experiencing phenomena with his own hands. “Whenever anyone visited, that would be the first place I would take them.” It was a casual coffee date—or perhaps serendipity—that catapulted George from superfan status to active engagement. His wife, Fannie Allen, met up with a business school friend who mentioned that she was on the board of the Exploratorium. “That’s George’s favorite place!” Fannie remarked. “Well, he should join the board,” her friend responded. “So that’s how I got involved,” George sums up. He officially started in April 1997. Teaming up with staff and two other board members, George created a strategic plan for the Exploratorium. First and foremost, “We needed more space,” he summarizes. “The founder of the Exploratorium, Frank Oppenheimer, had anticipated that need, but we set the plan in motion.” THE BIG MOVE By the numbers, here’s what came next: Ten years searching for a site. Six years securing the entitlements. Two years building the new 330,000-square-foot waterfront campus at San Francisco’s Piers 15 and 17. PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY OF IDA HØYRUP - EXPLORATORIUM / COURTESY OF GAYLE LAIRD - EXPLORATORIUM / COURTESY OF AMY SNYDER - EXPLORATORIUM OPPOSITE (clockwise): Exploratorium founder Dr. Frank Oppenheimer in his office in 1978; the original museum at the Palace of Fine Arts in the mid-1970s; visitors atop the Gyroid on opening day at Pier 15, April 17, 2013. ABOVE (top, from left): George Cogan and Fannie Allen at Party at the Piers, the Exploratorium’s biggest fundraising event; Pi Day festivities on March 14, 2024. And, specifically for George, innumerable hours driving the $300 million fundraising campaign to make it happen. As a board member, George was very familiar with the Exploratorium’s “outsized impact,” ranging from professional development programs for teachers to collaborative R&D projects on a global scale. “It was named the most important science museum Curious George Cogan
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