Discovery Cube Orange County in Santa Ana grew from a 1984 effort to unite local history education with plans for a major science center. After a feasibility study and a trial site called Launch Pad in the mid-1990s, the current 59,000-square-foot museum opened on December 17, 1998, in a former Bekins Van Lines depot. Known for its ten-story solar-clad cube beside Interstate 5, it became a prominent regional landmark and a major family science museum with more than 100 hands-on exhibits. The institution later joined Smithsonian Affiliations, expanded its campus in 2015, and extended its reach with a Los Angeles site that opened in 2014.

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