The Cox Science Center and Aquarium in West Palm Beach opens a new exhibition about cats and dogs today, October 10, and it does so in the middle of two bigger stories: the center turns 65 this month, and the cranes outside are building a $150 million expansion that will reshape the place.

For anyone in Palm Beach County who grew up taking a field trip to the science center on Dreher Trail North, that combination is worth a visit this month. The old building is still open, the anniversary is being marked with a free-with-admission festival next Saturday, and the new campus going up next door is now far enough along that you can watch it rise.

What opens today

Cats & Dogs runs from October 10, 2026 through April 16, 2027. The center describes it as a sensory, hands-on exhibition about the science, behavior and cultural history of the two animals most South Florida households actually live with. Visitors move through three separate environments, each built as its own scene with its own colors, materials and furnishings, so the experience plays out as a walk-through rather than a wall of panels.

The interactive pieces are aimed at the obvious questions: how smart a dog really is, what a cat is picking up that you are not, and how people in different parts of the world have lived alongside both. Part of the exhibit is built around letting you experience the senses of a cat or a dog for yourself. It is included in the regular ticket price, with no surcharge, which matters for a family deciding whether a rainy weekend is a science center weekend.

It joins The Giants of the Ice Age, which stays open through April 2027, so the winter lineup pairs prehistoric giants in one gallery with house pets in the next.

Sixty-five years, two celebrations

The center opened to the public on October 21, 1961, founded by the Junior League of the Palm Beaches, and it is marking the anniversary twice.

The public party is the Founders' Day Festival on Saturday, October 17, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. It is free with regular admission and fills the building with hands-on activities, anniversary displays on the center's history, local food trucks and community vendors (food is extra), and appearances by Bluey and Ms. Frizzle, which should settle the question of whether to bring the kids. The center is also collecting memories from the past 65 years through a Share Your Story drive, so if you have a field trip photo from 1975 in a shoebox, this is the moment for it. Students in grades 2 through 8 can enter a Past and Future poster contest (entries are due October 11), and the winners go up on display at the festival.

The formal moment comes on the actual anniversary, Wednesday, October 21, with a Founding Day ceremony from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. that includes a student choir and an official proclamation from West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James. Anyone who buys general admission at the on-site desk that day gets $6.50 off.

What the cranes are building

The reason the anniversary feels different is what is happening on the rest of the property. The center is in the second phase of a $150 million capital expansion, and the work has moved beyond site preparation, utilities and foundation planning into construction proper. Its construction updates page now describes the project as rising out of the ground.

The centerpiece is a new Science Pavilion of about 75,000 square feet, placed so it will be visible from I-95. Inside will be the headline number: the Kenneth C. Griffin Aquarium is growing from 10,000 gallons of salt and freshwater tanks to 130,000, a thirteenfold jump that will make it one of the largest aquariums in Florida. Skanska, which won the roughly $83 million construction contract in December 2025, says the largest exhibit tank will be concrete with an acrylic viewing window weighing around 20,000 pounds.

The plan also adds a Next Generation STEM Learning Center with labs and classrooms, and a Digital Arts Studio focused on training for tech jobs. On the existing campus, the center lists a Digital Exhibit Gallery for astronomy and space science, which is taking over from the planetarium, plus a toddler play zone called Engineers on a Roll, a life-size dinosaur garden called Dino Trek, and an ocean-themed play area called Explorers' Cove.

The goal is scale. The center wants to roughly double yearly attendance, in person and virtual, from about 500,000 to 1 million, and to grow the number of students reached through school programs from 150,000 to 350,000. Construction is expected to wrap up in late 2027, with grand opening details still to come.

What to know before you go

The center is open throughout construction, at 4801 Dreher Trail North, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends, and admission prices have not gone up. A few things have changed, though. The planetarium is closed while its replacement is built, the Hall of Discovery exhibits have been moved, the water table is gone, and the golf course will not be coming back. If a visit for you means a specific old favorite, check the center's current status page before you load the car.

Why it matters here

Most science museums celebrate a big birthday by looking backward. This one gets to do it with a construction site in view. The building that taught generations of Palm Beach County kids what a tide pool is will, by the end of next year, hold one of the biggest aquariums in the state, and this month it gets to celebrate both at once. Go see the cats and dogs, bring the shoebox photos on the 17th, and take a long look out the window at what comes next.