THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 1, 1994 TAG: 9406010504
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940601 LENGTH: Long
The $52 million project is the tourist magnet in Norfolk's downtown revitalization, sharing the limelight with Harbor Park, Waterside, Town Point Park, Harrison Opera House and the Chrysler Museum. Yet to come is an upscale shopping mall featuring Nordstrom and Macy's department stores.
{REST} Nauticus aims to educate while it entertains. It is being ballyhooed as a new breed of attraction - part museum, part theme park.
So, what's truly new about Nauticus?
Is it the group virtual-reality experience, allowing 18 submariners at a time to try and save the Loch Ness monster's eggs?
Or is it the AEGIS Theater, the authentic-looking copy of an AEGIS-class destroyer's command center, where visitors defend the ship in a mock-enemy attack from sea, land and air?
Is it the profusion of state-of-the-art interactive exhibits teaching participants about sonar, oil drilling, navigation and weather forecasting that distinguishes Nauticus?
Or, is it the sheer diversity - the high-tech displays, the touch tanks and aquaria, a naval history museum, a 350-seat theater showing 70 mm films, plus an outdoor pavilion overlooking the river, docked ships and nightly laser shows - much of it keyed to the area?
The answer is: all of the above.
Nauticus ``has a combination that probably isn't repeated anywhere else that I know of,'' said Bonnie Van Dorn, director of the Association of Science-Technology Centers in Washington, which counts 335 science-technology centers among its members. ``I am sure there is not another science center just like theirs, with the particular topics they have assembled.''
Today's science centers are diverse and interdisciplinary, Van Dorn said. Some contain science and technology, history and art displays, and many use a wide variety of high and low technologies and include theaters and touch tanks.
Boston's Computer Museum and Seattle's Pacific Science Center are among the centers experimenting with the costly virtual-reality exhibits, Van Dorn said. ``But I'm not aware of any other (virtual reality) exhibit like the one at Nauticus.
``Six people in three pods that interact - sounds very exciting.''
Like Nauticus, many science centers utilize advanced computer technology in their exhibits.
``From what I've heard, they're just continuing to push the envelope in terms of exhibitions,'' said Ed Able, director of the American Association of Museums in Washington.
``I could find very little at Nauticus that has not been similarly done,'' Able said. ``They are, of course, state-of-the-art, because they're new.
``I don't say that to denigrate what they're doing. They're taking model concepts and taking it to the next step,'' Able said.
For example, the simulated group decision-making process involved in the AEGIS Theater can be found elsewhere, Van Dorn said. What sets Nauticus apart from most science centers is the military combat theme. ``Most have purposely avoided war games,'' Van Dorn said.
Yet, AEGIS represents the Navy - the heart of the Hampton Roads community.
Like Nauticus, many science centers or museums are expected to be tourist attractions, an anchor for downtown or waterfront development, and an educational and cultural asset for the community, Van Dorn said.
Maryland Science Center was erected on the Baltimore waterfront in the mid-1970s. Now the area is a popular tourist stop also featuring an aquarium and a festival marketplace, she said.
In the early '90s, Portland's Oregon Museum of Science and Industry and Pittsburgh's Carnegie Science Center were built with similar expectations.
Centers tend to localize their exhibits, as Nauticus does. ``Most of them try to create a sense of pride for the local community regarding what is there, as well as to inform tourists about the area they're visiting,'' Van Dorn said. ``If you think in practical terms: science centers need to depend on contributions, and local sponsors are glad to see the visibility of the local community and its heritage, its industry.''
Plus, ``People learn through what's familiar. If you're covering a topic like water quality, you use an example of a local river. That's a very common approach for museums.''
While Nauticus appears a close kin to science-technology centers, it shares much with theme parks, too.
Nauticus and Disney's America, for instance, could be seen as bookends.
If Nauticus is a science and technology museum-turned-tourist attraction with fun, high-tech exhibits, then Disney's America - a $650 million project planned for Prince William County - is a theme park reaching for substance a la American history.
In fact, the proposed Disney's America contains an exhibit that should make Nauticus director Michael Bartlett sea-green with envy: A Civil War fort with re-enactments of land battles by day and a ``Monitor-Merrimack'' clash by night.
After all, the renowned battle of the ironclads took place nearly within sight of Nauticus. And the Disney folks didn't even know that, by the time of the famous battle, the Merrimac had been renamed the Virginia.
If the Disney folks had visited Nauticus, they'd know better. by CNB