The space place

A swooping UFO-like roof atop an oval canister of a building makes the Fleischmann Planetarium hard to miss. The planetarium’s own Web site describes it as “shaped like a Pringle’s potato chip.” But the only way the shape can truly be described is to call it what it is: a hyperbolic paraboloid. (Or, to the non-geometrically minded, kinda like a saddle.)

Its design came from architect Ray Hellman of Reno (not Frank Lloyd Wright, as was misreported in at least one popular travel guide). It opened in November 1963 as part of the Desert Research Institute and was acquired by the University of Nevada, Reno in 1975. It’s now part of the college of extended studies, and its friends affectionately refer to it as The Space Place.

But it almost died. A 2002 announcement that it would be torn down the following year to make way for a new parking garage for UNR sparked a massive public outcry. The parking garage was eventually redesigned to accommodate the presence of the planetarium—a solution that satisfied everyone.

So it was not absorbed into an asphalt parking lot black hole. It’s now wedged between Lawlor Events Center and the new parking garage.

Unfortunately, word of the planetarium’s possible demise attracted far more attention than news of its eventual reprieve. “A lot of people still think we’re closed,” laments planetarium business manager and exhibit coordinator Johanna Bell.

That’s too bad because “the planetarium is on the verge of being the coolest it has ever been,” says Dan Ruby with unfeigned enthusiasm. Ruby is the planetarium’s audiovisual supervisor, and with his plastic frame glasses and circa-1970 haircut, he looks the part. Ruby is excited because the planetarium recently purchased a new digital star projector. The classic opto-mechanical star projectors used in the past would create the night sky by means of light projected through hand-punched pinholes on an aluminum sphere. Star shows using this machine were augmented with slides shown on a series of individual slide projectors. This method was used at the Fleischmann Planetarium until last year, when they purchased their first digital projector. They’re currently in the process of buying an even newer one with a smoother operating system and better scholastic applications.

Digital projectors have a number of advantages over the older machines. For one, the animations and accompanying graphics are included in the actual projector, so the planetarium no longer needs to use the clunky slide projectors.

Additionally, digital technology makes it possible to view the stars from innumerable vantage points. “Opto-mechanical projectors just show the stars as they’re seen from Earth,” says Ruby. “But with a digital projector, you can view the stars from any perspective in the known universe. Then, when you get to the edge, there’s nothing, and you can just look at all the stars in one big mass. It’s like you’re moving through space at speeds way beyond light speed in order to see the stars from beyond the edge of known space.”

The planetarium also hosts an exhibition hall called the Hall of the Solar System, with a variety of exhibits, including meteorites and large, detailed rotating globes of the Earth and moon. Then there’s the dome theater itself—an enormous and mysterious white orb. One enters it after walking down a flight of stairs that seems like it might connect to a space shuttle. You can’t help but fantasize about being an astronaut entering a space pod to be rocketed off to distant worlds.

The planetarium has a model-rocket class during the summer, and Ruby hopes to someday have other such educational programs, including one that might use some of Lego’s interactive software. Ruby, who also teaches digital media courses for UNR’s art department, pulls out the new Lego catalog and points out some new additions. “They came out with new Star Wars designs … their new A-Wing is pretty good … but it’s still not as good as mine,” he says.

The current star show is Oceans in Space, an exploration of the possibility of life on other planets, narrated by Avery Brooks (Captain Benjamin Sisko of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine). In addition, they’re playing Adrenaline Rush, a full-dome, large-format 70 mm film about BASE jumpers and skydivers. The film should appeal to thrillseekers who enjoy panoramic shots of people jumping off things, accompanied by cornball narration.

The planetarium is also hosting a light show through April accompanying Pink Floyd’s opus of slick ’70s psychedelia, The Dark Side of the Moon. It’s the first time the planetarium has had a rock music light show since the early 1990s; and it’s guaranteed to be more fun than listening to the record while watching the Wizard of Oz in your parents’ basement.

The first Friday of every month, if the weather’s clear, the planetarium hosts a live star lecture and telescope viewing presented by the Astronomical Society of Nevada. The planetarium also has a variety of scholastic shows for kids of all ages.

So, while it never really went away, the planetarium is moving toward a stellar comeback.

Narrowly averted planetarium peril

In 2002, when it was announced the Fleishmann Planetarium would be torn down and paved over for a parking garage, the public fought back. Friends of the planetarium sent letters, phone calls and e-mails to city and university officials, to the planetarium itself and to nearly every media outlet in the area. These letters contained a great deal of vitriol directed at then university president John Lilley, and they had the same basic message: Don’t tear down the planetarium!

Lilley’s office responded in a statement that the university had plans for the new library and other structures that would take the place of the parking lot south of Lawlor. This loss of parking would be a blow to UNR’s ever-growing student body. The statement explained that the parking garage needed to be at the location just north of Lawlor for two reasons: “One, the location would provide parking near the new facilities. And two, constructing a new parking garage is likely the only way we’ll be able to comply with a mandated legal requirement to provide 200 ADA-designated parking spaces for public use adjacent to Lawlor Center and Mackay Stadium.”

The statement also mentioned, by way of partial justification for the planned demolition, that, “financially, the planetarium has struggled for years.” Keith Johnson, then the planetarium’s associate director, said at the time, “We’re an educational institution here, and it’s almost like asking if the library is breaking even.”

The planetarium isn’t a money-making machine. It’s an educational tool, a prestige symbol for the university and a source of entertainment for the community. The building’s unique design and the fact that it was the first planetarium in the state and the first to combine a planetarium with an atmospherium (a program for demonstrating daytime weather patterns) assured its relatively early appearance on the National Register of Historic Places.

In late 2002 and early 2003, many locals were still upset by the recent loss of the Mapes Hotel and could not abide the destruction of yet another historic Reno building—however reasonable the university’s explanations may have been. A solution was found when the parking garage was redesigned to work around the planetarium. In 2002, when it was announced the Fleishmann Planetarium would be torn down and paved over for a parking garage, the public fought back. Friends of the planetarium sent letters, phone calls and e-mails to city and university officials, to the planetarium itself, and to nearly every media outlet in the area. These letters contained a great deal of vitriol directed at then university president John Lilly, and they had the same basic message: Do not tear down the planetarium!

Lilly’s office responded in a statement that the university had plans for the new library and other structures that would take the place of the parking lot south of Lawlor. This loss of parking would be a blow to UNR’s ever-growing student body. The statement explained that the parking garage needed to be at the location just north of Lawlor for two reasons: “One, the location would provide parking near the new facilities. And two, constructing a new parking garage is likely the only way we’ll be able to comply with a mandated legal requirement to provide 200 ADA-designated parking spaces for public use adjacent to Lawlor Center and Mackay Stadium.”

The statement also mentioned, by way of partial justification for the planned demolition, that, “financially, the planetarium has struggled for years.” Keith Johnson, then the planetarium’s associate director, said at the time, “We’re an educational institution here, and it’s almost like asking if the library is breaking even.”

The planetarium is, of course, not a money-making machine. It’s an education tool, a prestige symbol for the university and a source of entertainment for the community. The building’s unique design and the fact that it was the first planetarium in the state and the first to combine a planetarium with an atmospherium (a similar program for demonstrating daytime weather patterns) assured its relatively early appearance on the National Register of Historic Places.

In late 2002 and early 2003, many locals were still upset by the recent loss of the Mapes Hotel and could not abide the destruction of yet another historic Reno building—however reasonable the university’s explanations may have been. A solution was found when the parking garage was redesigned to work around the planetarium.