For visitors who have viewed the Exploritorium on the Skokie Park District web site, or mapped the popular children’s imagination playground on Google Maps, they can now take a 360° photo tour of the facility, allowing them to see what they are going to experience before they ever step inside.

The new Google Maps feature allows users to walk into businesses or facilities, sometimes right off the street via Google’s street view feature, and take a look inside. In January, the Skokie Park District enlisted Sparkfactor, a Chicago advertising agency, to take 360° photos of eight of the district’s facilities. The company then worked with Google to load the photo tours onto the search engine giant’s online mapping service.

Thus far, a small percentage of American businesses have taken advantage of Google-certified photography, but the trend is growing rapidly.

Click on one of the facilities below for a virtual tour:

Emily Oaks Nature Center & EONC outdoors

The Exploritorium

Fitness First! health club

Skatium Ice Arena

Skokie Heritage Museum & Log Cabin

Skokie Sports Park

Skokie Water Playground

Weber Park Golf Course

For more information regarding all things Skokie Park District, please call (847) 674-1500 or check out the district on this web site.