Carnegie Science Center announced its rededication as the Daniel G. and Carole L. Kamin Science Center following a $65 million donation from the family.
The building’s naming rights are indefinite.
Since its 1991 construction, the science center along the Ohio River has held the Carnegie name.
The original “science center” was the Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science at 10 Children’s Way — the current address of the Children’s Museum.
At the Buhl center, Dan Kamin built his own telescope and began a lifelong journey of curiosity and exploration.
“The questions I asked my mother and father when I was a little kid remain the same, and that was where does space end?” Kamin said. “Is it 45 million, 30 million light years out? No! What’s beyond that? My parents could not answer that question, and Jason [Brown, the science center’s director] couldn’t either.
“If anyone here has the answer, come up and see me after.”
The Kamin are no strangers to Carnegie museums.
In 2016, they made a $5 million donation to the Museum of Natural History to endow the museum’s director position. Carole is also an emeritus member of the museum’s advisory board.
The couple also has a legacy fund through The Pittsburgh Foundation, which supports the arts, historic preservation and the environment.
Daniel is the president and owner of his family’s business, Kamin Realty. Yinzer Backstage Pass host Boaz Frankel met with Carole last summer to tour her private garden in Shadyside.
Brown says the science center’s rebranding will start immediately and continue over the next two years as part of its 10-year strategic planning initiative, which began in 2023.
When Heinz Field was renamed Acrisure Stadium, fans did not take it kindly. A year and a half later, social media users still comment on most Acrisure Stadium posts about Heinz Field.
Brown believes reactions to the science center will be much more positive.
“The money will be used in a way that improves our galleries, updates our experience for our visitors, invests in our team,” Brown says. “People will see a different name, but they’ll also see an improved experience in the building.”
Daniel Kamin fondly recalls his early days as an entrepreneur, selling parking spaces for Forbes Field for $1 and lemonade at baseball games. This pursuit led him straight into the family real estate business, Kamin Realty, in 1969.
Today Mr. Kamin is president and owner of the commercial side of the Pittsburgh realty business, the 39th largest shopping center and net lease retail property owner in the U.S. with 328 properties in 41 states.
After his parents passed away, close family bonds inspired Daniel and his brother Robert to create a memorial fund to honor their parents. The Harry Wallace and Dorothy Kamin Fund was formed and awarded its first grant in 2006.
The experience was so rewarding that Daniel and his wife Carole subsequently decided to create a separate legacy fund of their own, to be advised by their three sons in the future.
They designated many of the same institutions and organizations that their parents supported: the arts, historic preservation and the environment.
It was a natural fit, especially since Carole Kamin has followed in her mother-in-law’s footsteps as President of the National Society of Arts and Letters, says Mr. Kamin.
“We have a wonderful, very close family,” says Mr. Kamin. “We have chosen the Pittsburgh Foundation to carry on our legacy after we are gone.”