The 19-month expansion of the Children’s Museum of Denver and its familiar multicolored facade will finally be done on November 20—and no one can say the place was afraid to grow up. The $16.1 million project is the museum’s largest renovation since it was founded inside a converted school bus in 1973. The upgrade increases the facility’s interior footprint by 50 percent to about 47,000 square feet and includes a new lobby, cafe, and gift shop. More important (and much, much cooler) are the more than 10,000 square feet of new installations that will likely entertain children even older than the museum’s target range of newborns through eight-year-olds. The bait: a hydration lab for creating rainstorms and geysers (rendering above); an energy exhibit about fueling everything from hot air balloons to rockets; and a three-and-a-half-story mountain-themed climbing structure with bridges, a gondola, and spectacular views of the (actual) Rockies and downtown from the summit. The first phase of the project—the outdoor Joy Park, 30,000 square feet of zip lines, sand dunes, rivers, and waterfalls—debuted in June. Fortunately, the inside portion will wrap up just in time to help parents combat winter cases of the stir-crazies.