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For anyone who has grown up near the Fort Worth area in the 80s or 90s, a trip to the Omni Theater was a rite of passage and a memory not forgotten.
The theater, located in the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, originally opened in 1983 and was the first IMAX dome in the southwest. But over the years, this unique section of the museum has become underutilized in the wake of a new digital age. Compile this with an unpredictable global pandemic, and a bad winter storm and you get what the Omni Theater is today, a remnant of a time gone by. However, solid revitalization plans have been set in motion for this once-vibrant 3,865-square-foot theater.
In fact, the museum just announced this week that it has reached its $20 million fiscal goal to revamp the newly named “Jane & John Justin Foundation Omni Theater.”
Orlando Carvalho, president of the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History says the museum really got serious about wanting to revamp the once bustling theater to a new format in May of 2022.
“We are looking at a sixteen-month time-frame from beginning to end, best case scenario for this project to be completed,” he said. Carvalho also pointed out that the City of Fort Worth just approved the permitting for this project yesterday (April 19). “The fact that the city has already pulled the permitting, may allow us to move up the start for this project to this May. This means, if everything goes according to plan, we could have everything done by next August.”
Last year, the City of Fort Worth and Tarrant County awarded the Fort Worth Museum with several million dollars to aid with its renovation efforts.
Half of these funds, Carvalho says, will go to rebuild the dome and another half will go to upgrading the theater seating to include an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) space for wheelchairs at the base of the seating area. This means construction crews will have to demolish and repour concrete into the multi-level entrance and theater areas to make the space level all the way across while still maintaining a slant for theater seating.
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But revitalization efforts don’t mean everything is being upgraded. Carvalho verified that the Omni’s past will play a major role in the future design of the theater. “This is a very deliberate part of the plan,” Carvalho says. “We are going to preserve the original technology that was used to run the theater as an homage to its past in the form of a display item.”
This means some of the theater’s artifacts and the famous projector room everyone used to walk past on their way into the theater will still be there as a visual reminder of the Omni’s origins.
The sections of the existing theater to be revamped include rebuilding the 40' tall, 80' diameter dome by replacing the existing panels with 10x10 inch magnetized digital panels.
“Beforehand all you could in the Omni was come in and watch a film,” he says. “With the new digital technology, the giant dome can be used just like your phone or iPad … you can pull anything up on it and make it immersive.”
Carvalho says the maintenance on the new dome will also be easier than the upkeep of running the old 70mm film stock, which took several people to maintain along with specialized equipment to keep the old projectors cool.
Cosm, a global tech company, has been selected as the developer for the upgrades on the dome, and Byrne Construction Services will be placed in charge of the rebuild of everything else. Fun fact, Byrne Construction was involved with building the Omni Theater nearly 40 years ago in the early 80s.
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Other upgrades include taking the center section out (The Doghouse) where the old projector used to be to make room for more comfortable upgraded seating, plus the addition of a flat area near the base will be built for ADA compliance.
However, this doesn’t necessarily mean there will be more seating. According to Carvalho, seating for the new theater will have space for 300 people, which will be 90 seats less than the theater originally had.
“This allows us to place a stage in the front area of the theater that will allow for a speaker to give a presentation,” Carvalho says. “We did this because we plan on making the new theater a destination for companies to come and do events.” There will also be room for 200 people to gather around several 60-inch round tables in what is now the ticket and concession lobby area of the theater making this section an event-friendly gathering space.
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Another improvement Carvahlo pointed out will be the new motion sensor entry doors to the theater, which will alleviate any obstacles for patrons with ADA needs.
And of course, the museum is also keeping education in mind with the new plan for upgrades in the form of using new digital technology to aid teachers with collateral in the form of interactive lessons.
“We plan to have a form that teachers or schools can fill out so they can use the new digital space to expand on a specific lesson plan for a certain section they are currently teaching,” he said. “With this, educators can use the theater as a visual aid to help students learn. Before anything digital, this wouldn’t have been possible.” This means any educators wanting to bring a class to the newly redesigned Omni Theater can upload any lesson resources they already have available to display to the entire class. Plus, with the new podium, a teacher or group of teachers can also give a presentation while utilizing this new technology.
Carvalho says the renovations are estimated to take 16 months to complete and when done will make the Omni Theater the first LED dome of its size in a museum in the world.
Funding for the Jane & John Justin Foundation Omni Theater project comes from: The Amon Carter Foundation, The City of Fort Worth, The Jane & John Justin Foundation, Leo Potishman Trust, Tarrant County, The Burnett Foundation, William F. Scott Foundation, The Paul E. Andrews Foundation, and The Ryan Foundation.
