Immersive theater proposal for children’s museum gaining ground in La Habra ...Middle East

City Hall is reviewing a proposal to build an immersive theater near the Children’s Museum at La Habra.

The idea is to replicate — on a smaller scale — the Chateau des Carrieres, a massive multimedia exhibit set inside a former limestone quarry in Southern France.

La Habra resident Kent Roberts and his wife brought the idea home with them several years ago after a visit to the original in 2016 and have since been championing the project that is getting closer to a reality.

“The visuals will be larger than life,” said Roberts, a member of the museum’s nonprofit fundraising arm, Friends of the La Habra Children’s Museum. “One of our first exhibits will probably be from a company that makes underwater films — so when you walk into it, you’ll be surrounded by the ocean.”

“It’ll be like going into the Long Beach aquarium, but being surrounded by four walls.”

Introducing local children to the wonders of the wider world will expand their horizons, he recently told councilmembers, who this fall approved the final site choice for the theater behind the Depot Theater building on the south side of the children’s museum. Some of the old train cars used by the museum might need to be removed or relocated, officials said.

Councilmembers also agreed to pay half of the planning and design costs, up to $50,000, to be allocated from the City Facility Improvement reserves.

The 3,000-square-foot building expansion would house exhibits displaying immersive projections on the floors and the roughly 18-foot walls, along with music or audio.

Established in 1977, La Habra’s was considered the first of its kind in Southern California as a dedicated children’s museum. After multiple expansions throughout the years, the museum now occupies 12,500 square feet and offers exhibits focused on art, science, culture, nature and more.

“The children’s museum has about 90-some-odd thousand people a year go through it, mostly a parent and a child, sometimes in a stroller, up to third or fourth grade. This (immersive theater) will be a new exhibit they can walk directly into,” Roberts said.

Councilmembers also agreed to allocate up to $400,000 toward construction, on the condition that private funding for the project is fully secured before city funds are used. Final building and design plans will need to be reviewed by city officials before the project could move forward.

So far, the museum’s nonprofit has raised about $1.2 million for the theater, but a concrete estimate for total construction costs likely won’t be available until February. Early estimates have fundraising about $4 million short.

That didn’t seem to discourage Roberts, who said, “If I’m short, then I’ve got to raise more money. Story of my life.”

He said the proposed theater will also be available to rent in the evenings year-round, creating an atmosphere “that you just can’t find someplace else.”

“If you’re having a birthday party or an anniversary party, we’ll have visuals on the wall to match the occasion,” he said, “along with music that goes with it.”

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