Cinerama Dome

Pacific Theatres's Cinerama Dome is a movie theater located at 6360 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. Designed to present widescreen Cinerama films, it opened November 7, 1963. Today it continues as a leading first run theater. The original developer was Saul Pick.HistoryIn February 1963, Cinerama Inc. unveiled a radically new design for theaters which would show its movies. They would be based on the geodesic dome developed by R. Buckminster Fuller, would cost half as much as conventional theaters of comparable size, and could be built in half the time. Cinerama's goal was to see at least 600 built worldwide within two years. The following April, Pacific Theatres Inc. announced plans to build the first theater based upon the design, and had begun razing existing buildings at the construction site. Located on Sunset near Vine Street, it would be the first new major motion picture theater in Hollywood in 33 years, and would be completed in time for the scheduled November 2 press premiere of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. The design was adapted by the noted architectural firm of Welton Becket and Associates.Total construction time is reported to have been 16 weeks. The domed roof comprises 316 precast concrete panels (most hexagonal) in 16 patterns, each weighing some 3200lb. The first pentagonal panel was placed on August 29, with the rest to be installed over 4 weeks.