The Giant Movie Screen is a proposal for an urban scale television set. The project is an actual proposal for development that explores a new kind of drive-in movie theater as a possible business venture that straddles the boundaries between a conventional movie theater, outdoor advertising, and high-definition simulcast sporting events. The Giant Movie Screen uses a new high definition projection technology that has been specifically developed to operate at outside at extreme scales. The projection surface is 40í tall and 160í long, which is slightly larger than the entire surface of a football field end zone. Because of the extreme scale, the project is motivated by extreme structural and crowd capacity requirements. Structurally, the screen resists wind loads comparable to a large sail. In terms of crowd capacity,the project accommodates parking, concessions, and seating for up to 5,000 simultaneous visitors.

The architecture makes moves in response to these complex demands. The projection surface thickens and twists to develop a wide stance capable of resisting wind loads. The ground swells and hollows out to generate a hilly, park-like seating surface on top with parking buried below grade. The surface of the seating area is encrusted and ruffled with the technical infrastructure to serve crowds: concessions, light and air shafts to below, seating beaches, switchback paths of circulation. Situated in the critical discourse of architecture, we would argue that this approach — matter that makes moves, throws its weight around, twists, bulges, physically contacts its programs and structural requirements — is distinct from other formalist projects that would either find form by abstractly “mapping” the “forces” at play in the program or attempt an intricate expression of structure in order to achieve a saturation of the visual field.