The Marbles Kids Museum and IMAX Theater is a unique public/private partnership between Wake County and a non-profit children's museum.  The original museum building is an 80,000 square foot facility developed out of an existing State carpentry warehouse.  Known as Exploris when originally completed, the museum facility includes exhibit space, meeting/conference rooms, administrative offices, a retail store, and support areas.  The IMAX Theater is an additional 26,000 square foot building that houses a 300-seat large format theater, exhibit space expansion, and restaurant.

A series of special features was designed to express the mission of the museum.  A graphic of the view of earth from space covers the exterior of the large black box exhibit space by using 1.1 million glass marbles held in a stainless steel armature.  The "Patterns of Life" column, constructed from custom-designed art glass, expresses natural and man-made systems and is used to draw visitor's attention to the IMAX Theater entry.  A map of the world was created out of terrazzo for the center of the museum Global Space.

As the first new significant public building built in a Raleigh Historic District, this project had the additional challenge of expressing itself as a contemporary children's museum, while located in an early 20th century historic area.

The facility has not only become a successful museum, but a major public events center for all of downtown Raleigh and the Triangle.  Its public spaces, meeting and conference areas, as well as its food service capabilities, have garnered high demand for special events, conferences and corporate uses.  As part of downtown Raleigh’s cultural destinations, it has contributed significantly to the revitalization of the Capital City.