• Take our real SmartforTwo car for a test drive, then fill the gas tank and wash the windows
• Build fantastic vehicles with roller blade wheels and blocks embedded with magnets, and test them on our 37-foot test course

• Play a game of hide-and-seek inside giant five and seven-foot tall tires weighing nearly 2,000 lbs. each
• Climb up to a second level on a rope net and come back down on a corkscrew slide
• Launch parachutes off a vertical conveyor that climbs towards the upper reaches of the domed room
• Use a pulley system to return parachutes from the ground level to their second-floor launch pad
• Climb aboard Mister Rogers' Neighborhood Trolley for a ride
• Send toy cars down a custom raceway you build from interchangeable track pieces

The Art Here

• Pulley Slowly Rolling Bop by Henry Loustau, a hand-operated roller coaster for balls that turn, loop and jump through hoops high above on a wire track
• Rock Music by Ned Kahn, found in a hallway outside the Garage exhibit
• Barrels! by Will Schlough, interactive 14 foot sculpture of three 55-gallon oil drums precariously stacked atop one another, onto each other’s ends

Design Matters

Using sustainable practices in this space also helps to retain its garage-like authenticity.  Many of its original surfaces were kept intact during the Museum's 2004 expansion, including the brick walls and the projection screen of the former Buhl Planetarium.

The tire chairs and the giant tire sculpture in the Garage are examples of upcycling, repurposing discarded items into something of worth. 

Related Field Trips

Pumps and Pulleys

Visiting Tips

Download the file below for visiting tips for before and after your visit to the Garage.