The Long Beach aquarium, Aquarium of the Pacific, will be expanding in the next few years. Just think parents, more to explore, oh, you're tired already, too bad. We wonder how date nights will go with nights at the aquarium with the new additions.
The new Pacific Visions wing, that sort of looks like a whale, on purpose, is slated to finish in 2018. The new theater sounds like something out of an anime with floor projection and wired seats.
Details on the expansion include
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Honda Pacific Visions Theater
The
two-story, 300-seat Honda Pacific Visions Theater will include a
130-foot-wide by 32-foot-tall screen, curved in a 180 degree arc and a
retractable 30-foot-diameter floor projection disc to immerse
visitors in a virtual ocean environment. The theater will bring to life
epic ocean stories, allowing audiences to discover new species, witness
the processes and phenomena of Earth’s ecosystems, and grapple with the
many challenges facing the natural world.
Each seat will be wired for interactivity, providing visitors
opportunities to explore a range of possible trajectories for our planet
and underscoring how human action can lead to a more sustainable
future. All stories will be developed by the Aquarium in
partnership with leading scientists, filmmakers, storytellers, and
digital artists. The infrastructure created for this theater will allow
for media-rich performances, panel discussions, community meetings, and
educational seminars that can incorporate live
broadcast feeds and streaming media.
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Main Entrance and Front Plaza
The Aquarium’s
redesigned Dr. Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg Entrance will include an
expanded ticketing area and special members’ entrance, as well as a
Member Services Center. The front plaza will serve as a community
gathering space, which will feature outdoor programs and art
installations.
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Changing Exhibit Gallery
The expanded Changing Exhibit Gallery will double the existing changing
exhibit gallery space, adding a total of 6,000 square feet. The new
space will feature live animals and immersive interactive multi-media
displays and expansive dynamic projected wall murals
to complement and foster deeper engagement with the narrative and
themes of each temporary exhibit. These exhibits will be rotated
periodically to reflect current scientific issues and discoveries and
will be developed in conjunction with the theater experiences.
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Art Gallery and Orientation Gallery
Visitors will enter the new wing though the Pacific Visions Art Gallery
featuring a range of changing installations to establish an emotional
connection to the ocean and marine life. Visitors will then proceed into
the Orientation Gallery, which will showcase
a 26-foot-wide by 8-foot-tall media wall to introduce visitors to the
challenges and promises of the future to be explored in the theater.