Hoover Dam Immersive Walkthrough

Through cinematic storytelling, composited media and archival interpretation, visitors experience the engineering ambition, physical labor, and lasting impact of one of the most legendary infrastructure projects in American history. The exhibit’s signature experiences transports visitors directly into the construction zone of the 1920s. Inside a wooden canyon passageway modeled after the temporary walkways used during construction, visitors travel along the edge of the future dam site while panoramic media environments recreate the intensity of building Hoover Dam. The Hoover Dam passageway experience created a unique challenge, with visitors viewing the 19K canvas from inches away. Since no archival photos existed at anything near the resolution required, original stills and video were taken from a location matching that of an iconic archival photograph near the edge of the dam. The panorama was then stitched and reconstructed, layering original images and video with colorized archival stills, CGI models, VFX, and character actors filmed on green screen to create a single immersive scene.
Through composited media and environmental storytelling, visitors are placed within historic scenes of Black Canyon as it was being excavated. Dynamite blasts echo through the canyon walls, workers rappel down sheer rock faces as high-scalers, and trucks haul debris from the canyon floor. Two screens in the panorama also had an interactive component: massive explosions that could be triggered by pressing a physical dynamite plunger in the next gallery. Since the program repeated every minute, the canvas also needed to seamlessly loop and the soundscape synced between the construction scene on one side of the passageway and the four life size characters on the other, who interacted with one another and represented several of the tradesmen working on the project.
With approximately 400,000 guests coming through the visitor center annually, the lead exhibit designer expressed how delighted they are with the added layers of immersiveness, noting the outcome exceeded expectations.