From left, Children’s Museum Executive Director Kay Wagner receives $50,000 from Peter Dennehy, Julia Simms and Eric Jones of BIA Cares for Kids.

The Building Industry Association of San Diego County has kicked off a fund-raising campaign among home-builders to help the San Diego Children’s Museum close an $8 million gap toward its $21 million museum, park and elementary school in Downtown San Diego.

“The San Diego Children’s Museum seemed like a perfect fit for our organization,” said Julia Simms, president of BIA Cares for Kids and head of the JSPR public relations company. “Downtown developers are clamoring for more amenities that will attract families to buy a home and move Downtown. This new facility, in my opinion, is one giant indoor-outdoor park and playground. It is just what Downtown needs and we are sure… that builders and developers will get behind it in a big way.”

Simms kicked off the campaign at an April 20 fund-raising event for the Children’s Museum at the El Cortez. Architect Rob Wellington Quigley “talked guests through” a virtual reality tour of the new facilities. Landscape architect Martin Poirier discussed the indoor-outdoor spaces being created for children.

Simms announced not only a gift of $50,000 from BIA Cares to the Children’s Museum but also pledged to rally the troops within the building industry to gather more financial support for the new museum building.

According to Simms, BIA Cares for Kids was created to involve the building industry in collective participation in a variety of charitable projects, primarily new construction and renovation projects for San Diego’s children’s charities.

Kay Wagner, executive director of the museum, said the building industry is “our knight in shining armor and will have a significant impact on our fund-raising goal.

“We will be holding an event for all those in the building industry to show them our plans and get them excited about this vibrant new educational and arts facility for children. We are confident that they will see the huge benefit the Children’s Museum will be to their home buyers.”

Wagner and Simms have plans to hold fund-raising events with buyers of Downtown residences as well as for those contemplating a downtown purchase. Included on their building industry outreach committee are Peter Dennehy of Sullivan Group Real Estate Advisors, Eric Jones and Faris Matin of Urban Housing Partners and Susan Christopher of Festivities Catering.

“Downtown is becoming one of the finest places to call home in the entire county – for its beauty, excitement and convenience,” said Sherm Harmer, chairman of the Downtown Residential Marketing Alliance. “The attraction of this mecca for urbanites will only increase with the addition of the new Children’s Museum.”

The San Diego Children’s Museum/Museo de los Ninos is a cultural and educational institution with a 20-year history of hands-on, arts-based programs for children and their families. It has been cited nationally for its emphasis on the arts and its challenging and problem-solving activities that develop critical thinking skills among children. Internationally acclaimed artists as well as favorite local artists will be creating permanent and temporary exhibits in the new 50,000-square-foot facility.

The Quigley design will be the first “green” building in Downtown and will be an integral part of Downtown’s revitalization, according to Harmer. It will include a dramatic three-story atrium, an entrance bridge that spans from Island Avenue into the see-through museum to a point 17 feet above the lower level, a glass-enclosed elevator tower that rises above the building and functions as a solar cooling tower, and an angled saw-tooth-shaped roof structure with space for future solar panels. Recycled building materials, water-saving devices, natural day lighting and convection cooling will be additional environmentally friendly elements.

“We see this project being of interest to all those involved in the building industry,” said Eric Jones. “After all, this is everyone’s Downtown and everyone’s Children’s Museum. It’s just a trolley ride from our inner-city neighborhoods and a short drive for just about anyone in the county.”

Jones added that the Children’s Museum will be a great benefit to busy parents, who can drop off their children for three or four hours of well-supervised, highly engaging artistic education while “Mom powers through Nordstrom or Dad takes in a Sunday ballgame.”

The new museum will include art galleries, theatrical spaces, a toddler area, a revolving artist-in-residence space, clay, painting and mixed-media studios, as well as a computer animation studio and party rooms. In addition to public spaces, the museum facility will house the museum’s charter school, administrative offices and an exhibit workshop.

Adjacent to the museum will be the one-acre Children’ Museum Park, which connects to the city’s Martin Luther King Jr. Promenade. Designed by Martin Poirier, who designed the Getty Museum’s gardens in Los Angeles, it will include a cargo-net climbing structure, several sculptures and covered play spaces etched with cast-shadow poetry by Quincy Troupe.

“We’re delighted to be a part of this monumental undertaking,” said Peter Dennehy, speaking on behalf of Sullivan Group and parent The Ryness Co., which donated another $1,000 that night. “I will be thrilled to bring my 2-year-old to the museum and I’m excited to be able to make a difference on behalf of all children in the county.”