The Aquarium of the Pacific’s $53 million expansion project, with designs centered around a new auditorium with a 130-foot curved screen, is about to begin construction.
The project, called Pacific Visions, is the first major expansion since the aquarium’s 1998 founding, executive director Jerry Schubel said. The aquarium revealed its plans in March.
“Pacific Visions will allow us to enhance our visitor experience with immersive experiences, additional live animal exhibits and designated spaces to engage with ocean science in unexpected ways from performing arts to visual arts, in addition to increasing our audience capacity to approximately 2 million visitors per year,” Schubel said in an email.
Schubel anticipates the expansion will be complete in late 2018 or in early 2019. The aquarium averages 1.7 million visitors annually.
The aquarium hired San Francisco architectural firm EHDD to design a new structure to stand alongside the main aquarium building, which houses veterinary facilities and the aquatic exhibits where visitors can view sea lions, fish and other marine life from the Pacific Ocean.
EHDD’s design calls for the construction of a curvy “biomorphic” structure with nearly 29,000 square feet of space encased in more than 800 glass panels. Each panel will consist of three layers of glass, with the center layer tinted blue and the outer layers acid-etched to prevent the building exterior from reflecting the trees and sky. That, according to the aquarium, is a safety feature intended to reduce the risk of birds confusing the building with the sky.
“The glass enclosure certainly will be a signature figure for the aquarium and is a beautiful design by EHDD,” said Steve Dell’Orto, senior vice president for Clark Construction Group. “Inside, I think the whole audiovisual experience is going to be state-of-the-art.”
Clark Construction Group, with an office in Irvine and its base in Bethesda, Md., is the general contractor for the project. The firm also is among those working with the Plenary Edgemoor Civic Partners joint venture to build Long Beach’s new civic center.
Behind the new building’s glass surface, plans call for the construction of a 300-seat venue to be called the Honda Pacific Visions Theater. Those designs include a 32-foot-tall, 130-foot-long curvilinear projection screen with a 180-degree arc.
“It’s really going to be something that just surrounds the audience,” said Joseph Cortina, principal of McLean, Va.-based Cortina Productions. The aquarium contracted Cortina to take charge of designing Pacific Visions’ media offerings.
Cortina said the venue also will include a 30-foot disc positioned in front of the main screen that can double as a secondary projection surface or a stage for live performers. Details of the new theater’s first production, however, are being kept secret for now.
Theater designs also call for 4D-style features such as rumbling seats and other methods of adding tactile and olfactory stimulation to the viewing experience, such as blasts of mist, blowing air or aromas, according to the aquarium.
Besides the theater, the Pacific Visions wing has been designed to include a 6,000-square-foot space for exhibitions that may include live animals or digital media. An additional 2,800-square-foot art gallery is also included in the plans.
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