An exciting new attraction is coming to Navy Pier courtesy of Illuminarium Experiences. Early next year work will begin transforming the expansive space currently home to Crystal Gardens. Come 2023, an entirely different world will be accessible beneath the six-story glass atrium.
The 32,000-square-foot immersive entertainment experience will offer state-of-the-art technology that will transport guests to distant places. High-resolution interactive laser projection, 3D immersive audio, in-floor haptics, and vibrations, along with different scents, will fabricate mind-blowing immersion, that’s the first of its kind.
The experience will open with two virtual reality-like exhibits that place visitors inside the story without the use of headsets or virtual reality equipment. One will offer a journey to the wildest parts of Africa and the other will transport visitors to the surface of the moon.
The first exhibit, Wild: A Safari Experience, which has already debuted in Atlanta, will bring you face-to-face with some of the world’s most exotic animals, as you roam their natural habitat.
Using real content shot in Africa, guests will leave Navy Pier behind for the sweeping plains of Masai Mara, the majestic landscapes of Kruger Park, and the watering holes of Samburu.
The next experience, Spacewalk, will take guests on a celestial odyssey through the solar system to mesmerizing moonscapes and on towards the surfaces of Mars.
“Navy Pier juts out 3,300 feet into the water, and our Centennial Wheel rises 200 feet into the sky, but Illuminarium breaks all boundaries by taking us places most of us would never see—transporting us across oceans—and under them—and sending us soaring beyond the reach of astronauts,” said the Navy Pier President and CEO Marilynn Gardner.
Navy Pier’s Illuminarium experience will also feature a bar that similarly incorporates audio and visual immersion taking guests to different settings across the globe both real and imagined.
The attraction made its global debut in Atlanta, and locations in Chicago, Miami, and Las Vegas will soon follow. Construction for the Navy Pier’s Illuminarium experience has begun and the venue hopes to open mid 2023.
You can find more information at illuminarium.com