With interiors fabricated by Cinnabar, new San Francisco visitor centers Lands End Lookout and Golden Gate Bridge Pavilion create unique destination retail

Photos: Cinnabar

San Francisco, USA -- Cinnabar Inc., exhibit producer, artisan and fabricator, collaborated with design firm Macchiatto to create the educational exhibits and retail fixtures for two new visitor centers that opened this spring: Lands End Lookout and Golden Gate Bridge Pavilion, both projects of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy.

Inside Lands End Lookout visitor center, interpretive exhibits, interactives and retail merchandise displays share space

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Inside the Golden Gate Bridge Pavilion, design motifs and colors echo the celebrated span.

Rather than relegate exhibits and retail to separate areas, the visitor centers blend the two, creating unique, accessible, and educational destinations, which San Francisco Chronicle writer John King described as "learning and commerce both geared to the locale." Fabrication emphasized the use of sustainable, reclaimed and recycled materials, and a fast-track, design/build methodology.




Cinnabar CEO Jonathan Katz says, "We are pleased to add Lands End Lookout Visitor Center and the Golden Gate Bridge Pavilion to Cinnabar's museum portfolio and our body of work in the San Francisco Bay Area. The museum/retail hybrid can bring greater attendance and a wider demographic than a traditional interpretive exhibit. We applaud the Conservancy and designer Jeremy Regenbogen of Macchiatto for their vision. "

"Clouds" at Lands End Lookout are of laser-etched cardboard

Cinnabar is no stranger to iconic projects in the Bay Area - the company also produced the exhibits for the Kimball Museum of Natural History at the new California Academy of Sciences.


Lands End Lookout
Situated on Point Lobos at the main entrance to the California Coastal Trail at Lands End, the visitor center includes 1,200 square feet of display space, with information about the area's cultural and natural history, and resources for hikers.  


Interactive displays and interpretive items, precision-crafted by Cinnabar, engage visitors in the story of the area.

 
Overhead, suspended "clouds" of corrugated cardboard are laser-etched with custom graphics; a fortune telling machine has magnetic flip-cards, printed with memorable local photos and “fortunes,” that spin around before settling back to lie flush with the tabletop; mounted between sheets of Lexan and illuminated by the huge picture windows are illustrations of the Yelamu Ohlone culture and historical photos of the Sutro Baths and Cliff House; and the "Leave your Voice" interactive encourages visitors to write feedback on cards that are later integrated into the display.


Golden Gate Bridge Pavilion
Marking the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge, the 3,500-square-foot Bridge Pavilion, located in the Golden Gate Bridge Toll Plaza, features a model of the Bridge tower and is filled with Bridge-related merchandise as well as detailed information and history. 

Golden Gate Bridge Pavilion: studded with some 1300 threaded rivets custom-cast by Cinnabar to imitate the rivets of the bridge.

The built environment evokes the history, the physical surroundings, and the structure of the celebrated span itself. The walls are studded with some 1300 threaded rivets custom-cast by Cinnabar to imitate the rivets of the bridge. Cinnabar enforced an exacting color matching process to consistently duplicate the bridge's signature International Orange over a wide range of materials, surfaces and treatments.


Fast-track design/build process
Both visitors centers were built on a fast track using a collaborative design/build process in which the fabricator and producer are involved from the early stages of a project while the design is still fluid. Cinnabar’s background is in building sets for cinema and broadcast, where design/build is customary, and Katz is a leading proponent of it for the museum sector. "Design/build keeps you on schedule and on budget while upholding quality and the design vision," comments Katz. "It's a balance of goals and practical requirements that plays to the strengths of the creative team.” 

Macchiatto's Jeremy Regenbogen says, “Often value engineering comes at the end of the project, where difficult sacrifices must be made. Cinnabar’s early involvement meant that we could constantly bounce ideas off them and keep the intent of the design intact.”

Designer Jeremy Regenbogen of Macchiatto, in the Golden Gate Bridge Pavilion

The fortune telling machine at Lands End Lookout

Regenbogen adds, “Cinnabar’s broad reaching, in-house expertise in media integration, graphic production techniques, metal fabrication and traditional cabinetry really helped keep the fabrication process efficient and without surprises. Cinnabar matched the design intent exactly, with an incredibly unified look. Whenever we had a thought about how a complex element might be constructed, we discussed it in great detail with one of their experts relevant to the fabrication method we were discussing. We were able to really push the limits of constructability and utilize some nontraditional building materials, making for a truly unique finished product.” 
 

About Cinnabar
Founded in 1982, Cinnabar California, Inc. is one of the entertainment industry's leading production and fabrication companies, providing specialty fabrication for television, film and themed venues. In recent years, Cinnabar has been at the forefront of developments that have seen the integration of innovative new approaches to the process and production of museum exhibitions. Operating from a 30,000 square foot production facility, Cinnabar is able to provide its clients a complete range of in-house design-build, project management, and manufacturing services. Cinnabar is a licensed General Contractor in California and Nevada, and has held GC registration in other states on an as-needed basis. 

Jonathan Katz and employee at Cinnabar

About the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy
The Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy is the nonprofit membership organization created to preserve the Golden Gate National Parks, enhance the experiences of park visitors, and build a community dedicated to conserving the parks for the future. Visit http://www.parksconservancy.org. 

About Macchiatto

With a couple of decades of experience in interpretive storytelling, museum exhibition and retail design, as well as branding, collateral and packaging design, Macchiatto brings a team of extremely well-rounded designers to every project, capable of telling the clients’ stories in new and compelling ways. Visit http://macchiatto.com/

 

Lands End

Maurice Sendak, creator of "Where The Wild Things Are" dies at 83

Photo: LATimes.com. Maurice Sendak poses with one of the characters from "Where the Wild Things Are" on Sept. 25, 1985. The character was one of several designed for the operatic adaptation of his book. (Associated Press / May 8, 2012)

The original Sony Metreon retail and entertainment in San Francisco was the site for attractions themed on "Where the Wild Things Are" and "Night Kitchen." Cinnabar played an integral role in creating these attractions, often interacting directly with Sendak.

The attractions closed some time ago, but their making is detailed in this 1999 article, "Something Wild," written by Judith Rubin for Live Design.

Here is an obituary and appreciation of Sendak from the Chicago Tribune and LA Times.

Media acclaim for Cinnabar's recent projects with Macchiatto, for the Golden Gate Parks Conservancy, in San Francisco

Golden Gate Bridge Pavilion image: Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy

For two new visitor centers in San Francisco, Lands End Lookout and the Golden Gate Bridge Pavilion, both run by the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, Cinnabar fabricated the exhibit/retail elements of the public experiences, for the design firm Macchiatto.

ABC News (with video)
SFGate.com
National Park Service official press release 
Ocean Beach Bulletin 
KTVU (excellent photo gallery) 
Richmond SF Blog 
SF Curbed
SF Appeal
National Parks Traveler
Elemental LED

Better Museum Exhibits Through Collaboration

Hands-on: Jonathan Katz and employee in the shop at Cinnabar

“It becomes very, very easy to communicate the transmission of ideas and find solutions. I think the word ‘partner’ is a really good way to explain how both the museum and Cinnabar and other contractors put it together.” – Simon Adlam, Natural History Museum of LA County 

 Cinnabar CEO Jonathan Katz has never balked at change. He is always prepared to seek and implement ways to update and improve his “company of designers, artisan builders and producers creating unique experiences for the museum, entertainment and cultural industries.” In his quest for better ways to do business in step with evolving conditions, he freely borrows models, best practices and tricks of the trade wherever he finds them – embracing the principles of supply chain management from the manufacturing sector, for instance.

“Often value engineering comes at the end of the project, where difficult sacrifices must be made. Cinnabar’s early involvement meant that we could constantly bounce ideas off them and keep the intent of the design intact.” – Jeremy Regenbogen, Macchiatto

For two new visitor centers in San Francisco, Lands End Lookout and the Golden Gate Bridge Pavilion, both run by the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, Cinnabar fabricated the exhibit/retail elements of the public experiences, for the design firm Macchiatto. The experiential nature of the displays and the collaborative production process both departed from traditional models.... Click here for the full article and images.

Designer Jeremy Regenbogen at the site of the Lands End Lookout visitor center

Cinnabar Creates Interactive Eco Challenge Exhibit for Discovery Science Center

Cinnabar Creates Interactive Eco Challenge Exhibit for Discovery Science Center

Archive link to this press release

 

Los Angeles, California, USA - October 25, 2011
Where can kids shop for dinner, sort the trash faster than a recycling worker, and clean out the garage, all in less than an hour?

Discovery Science Center (DSC), the popular children's museum in Santa Ana, Calif., called on seasoned exhibit producer, artisan and fabricator Cinnabar Inc. to realize its concept for "Eco Challenge" - a fun and educational experience that marries authentically detailed themed environments to interactive video game technology and teaches kids about eco-friendly choices.

The exhibit, open since September, has already hosted thousands of children and been hailed as a success. 

"The children are immersed in an amazing environment full of realism and technology," says Joe Adams, Discovery Science Center President. "We're already hearing from parents that the message from the experience is being driven home."

The project was born when Orange County Waste & Recycling (OCW&R) approached Discovery Science Center with the idea for the exhibit. The museum then turned to Cinnabar to help make the exhibit a reality.

Jonathan Katz

"We were brought in and given the creative vision," explains Cinnabar President Jonathan Katz. "With the museum's guidance, we completed the design/build work and assembled a team to accomplish the completely integrated project, including longtime Cinnabar collaborator Mindi Lipschultz as media producer, and BBI Engineering for A/V systems and mechanical interfaces."

As visitors navigate the three zones of Eco Challenge (Discovery Market, Race to Recycle and Eco Garage), they are greeted and addressed by the "Eco Crew" - six unique, digitally animated, 3D-rendered characters that appear, reappear and interact with visitors throughout the experience - showing up on a variety of digital displays from 52" vertical monitors down to 15" shopping cart screens. Lively, friendly and informative, the Eco Crew members reflect the diversity of their audience and address their viewers as equals while making an engaging, clear and passionate connection to what all of us can do to Reduce, Recycle and Reuse.

The exhibit centers around three keystone experiences, all media-rich and detail-laden:

Sandra

Discovery Market is a life-size recreation of a grocery store, complete with computer-enhanced shopping carts. Eco Crew members help guide visitors through making the most ecologically friendly decisions while navigating the store.

The battery-powered shopping carts, scaled to the museum's younger visitors, are equipped with touchscreen displays and handheld scanners. The user-friendly, intuitive interface lets visitors jump right into the experience The carts are engineered to be extremely durable, able to take the daily wear-and-tear dealt out in a supermarket and a hands-on science center.

Race to Recycle turns the concept of carnival-style horseracing into a trash and recycling sorting adventure. After a quick introduction from Eco Crew member Zac, who shows up on the screen console for each sorting station, kids select items off a moving conveyor belt and sort them into the proper bin to advance their waste truck along the racecourse.

Eco Garage recreates three typical household garages, along with the bevy of toxic items contained within. Armed with scanners, kids race the clock to pick items they think are hazardous waste. At the end, Eco Crew member Justin directs them to the nearest real-life hazardous waste processing facility.

"[Eco Challenge] is utilizing a first-of-its-kind, state-of-the-art exhibit to educate children and parents on the importance of making eco-friendly decisions for the long-term," explains Adams.

 

The project was completed in less than a year - a feat which Katz credits to a clear vision from the museum and a cohesive team.

"A key part of our Integrated Creative Management (ICM) approach is to bring all the participants to the table at the beginning of a project. By identifying all the roles and our expectations at the onset, the project was able to move at a quick pace," says Katz. "Additionally, ICM results in additional value and savings for the client- enhancing the risk/reward attractiveness of this production model." The Discovery Science Center provided a clear vision for Cinnabar and Cinnabar in turn set in motion an effective collaborative production.

Already, the museum is seeing results from the team's efforts. The exhibit has been a hit with school groups and field trips.

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About Cinnabar Founded in 1982, Cinnabar California, Inc. is one of the entertainment industry's leading production and fabrication companies, providing specialty fabrication for television, film and themed venues. In recent years, Cinnabar has been at the forefront of developments that have seen the integration of innovative new approaches to the process and production of museum exhibitions. Operating from a 30,000 square foot production facility, Cinnabar is able to provide its clients a complete range of in-house design-build, project management, and manufacturing services. Cinnabar is a licensed General Contractor in California and Nevada, and has held GC registration in other states on an as-needed basis.  

About Discovery Science Center

Discovery Science Center is Orange County's leading destination for hands-on science fun where guests can explore more than 100 interactive science exhibits. Blast off in the Boeing Rocket Lab featuring a real rocket engine, explore the planets in the Planetary Research Station and discover the science behind a puck in the Science of Hockey. Discovery Science Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating young minds, assisting teachers and increasing public understanding of science, math and technology through interactive exhibits and programs. For more information, call 714-542-2823 or go online at www.discoverycube.org.

 

MEDIA CENTER

 

PHOTOGRAPHY
Available with captions and credits

 VIDEOS and MORE PHOTOS
Meet the characters who give Eco Challenge its personality

DSC PRESS
Discovery Science Center's Eco Challenge release

Eco Challenge promotional video from Discovery Science Center

Eco Challenge opened in September 2011 at the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, Calif. Cinnabar is proud to have collaborated with DSC as producer, helping to realize the museum's vision for an engaging, immersive exhibit that uses interactive media to motivate children and their families to think about the effects of their decisions as consumers in the grocery store.

Eco Challenge at DSC - media production

Mindi Lipschultz talks about media production for the new Eco Challenge exhibit, on location at the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, California. Eco Challenge was produced by Cinnabar and opened in September 2011.