Digitization has changed the way we consume content. The publishing industry was once piled high with mid-price printed matter, but consumers now choose between e-books and limited-edition tomes. Audiophiles have eschewed albums for MP3 downloads or live events. Today, there is mass — and there is class.
Courtesy iPic Theatres
This phenomenal change of business model has not fully taken hold of the movie industry. Sure, you can stream a recent release for a few dollars … and traditional movie houses have lost revenue as a result. But what about the luxury end of the spectrum? The growing Boca Raton, Fla.-based company iPic Entertainment is defining this next level with its nationwide rollout of eponymous theaters, which will total 13 locations with the opening of a new facility in North Miami Beach, Fla., next month.
Courtesy iPic Theatres
iPic pairs artisanal cocktails and farm-to-table cuisine with movie-going. Ticketholders may be served inside the auditorium, while guests that purchase a basic level of service carry food and beverage from the in-house concessions to seating with integrated tables. Each theater includes additional dining and drinking venues so patrons can stretch a film showing into an entire night out or, perhaps, even skip the picture altogether.
If iPic’s business model is the disruptive innovation the movie-house market was waiting for, then it is also a throwback to dinner theater and a more glamorous era of entertainment in general. At four theaters in the rapidly expanding iPic chain, the creative team at ID and Design International has translated this old-meets-new perspective into three dimensions, and the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., firm employed Cascade Architectural’s Fabricoil™ architectural coiled wire fabric systems in these spaces specifically to that effect.
Courtesy iPic Theatres
Produced by Tualatin, Ore.-based Cascade Coil Drapery, Fabricoil comprises strands of coiled wire that interlock to become a flexible surface. Fabricoil coiled wire fabric is manufactured in a wide variety of metals that include aluminum, brass, copper clad steel, steel, and titanium as well as numerous gauges, scales, finishes, and colors.
In the Scottsdale Quarter district of North Scottsdale, Ariz., the 48,000-square-foot location comprises eight auditoriums, a lounge, and a Mediterranean restaurant. These destinations radiate from a spacious lobby where panels of ¼-inch, 19-gauge steel are suspended at various heights from the 28-foot-high ceilings. As substitutes for interior walls, the contemporary fabric celebrates the volume of the soaring space while also framing the bar and demarcating more intimate seating vignettes within the lounge.
Courtesy iPic Theatres
Fabricoil’s effectiveness as a way-finding tool further comes to light in ID and Design International’s scheme for the iPic Theater in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. The coiled wire fabric — here based on 3/16-inch, 19-gauge galvanized steel — greets guests immediately upon entry and draws them toward the escalator core. In both locations, the material’s translucency also ensures that people who are new to the entertainment platform can easily get their bearings and navigate the activities at their disposal.
The pair of theaters employs the same variety of finishes, as well. Panels in antique copper, satin bronze, and silver finishes are ceiling-mounted using Cascade Architectural’s curved hook attachment system. Gobo lights project geometric patterns onto the multihued systems, which also reflect lights that are recessed in wood-paneled walls. Besides providing visual delight, the Fabricoil carries some symbolic weight as it evokes the curtains that opened and closed behind the proscenium of theaters long ago.
Courtesy iPic Theatres
ID and Design International also sourced Fabricoil systems for iPic theaters in the Bethesda, Md., Pike and Rose and in Boca Raton, Fla. Yet the product’s suitability to this program type should not suggest niche use. Andrew Schoenheit, the VP of Sales at Cascade Coil Drapery, observes that architects and designers all over the world are turning to Fabricoil for interior partitions: “The curved shape of the coils along with the ability to curve the attachment system to create beautiful serpentine installations,” he says, “lends a lot [of] textures to a space, which is hugely attractive to the design community.”
