Science Flair

A youthquake has hit a dowdy two-story building on Main Street in Santa Ana that once housed sedate rows of couches and credenzas.

Bold colors, dynamic angular elements and playful rhythms have transformed the 59,000-square-foot former Barker Bros. furniture store into a home for science- and technology-related displays that vibrate, whirl, pump and shake.

From the 108-foot-tall tilted cube looming over the roof like a sci-fi apparition to the sparkling glass wall that looks as though it was squeezed by a giant hand, the $24-million Discovery Science Center, which opens today, displays the jazzy flair of internationally famed hotshot Miami Beach architecture firm Arquitectonica.

For two decades, the company has put its breezy, pop-flavored stamp on apartment buildings, retail centers, cultural centers and other public structures in the United States and abroad.

A more traditional-minded architect once sniped that Arquitectonica buildings “look good from moving cars.” It’s precisely that quality that gives the new science center--which rubs shoulders with the Santa Ana Freeway--its panache.

The cube, which won’t be finished until spring, consists of a Tinker Toy-like steel frame covered with small fiberglass grids. Although they look solid, tiny perforations--necessary for wind resistance--allow light to shine through. A solid object by day, the cube will glow at night--thanks to the wizardry of fiber optics--as if suspended in space.

This giant icon was the key to turning a boxy warehouse space that was saddled with an unsightly rooftop “penthouse” that housed air-conditioning equipment into an intriguing destination, according to Arquitectonica co-founder Bernardo Fort-Brescia. The challenge, he explained recently from his Florida office, was to communicate the notion of technology in the quickest possible way.

“We thought that, from the highway, you don’t have a lot of time to think,” he said. “You’re driving at 55 miles an hour or more, and you have to understand it and be able to tell your friends, ‘I just saw this building!’ ”

Fort-Brescia and his team envisioned a giant black cube, suspended in midair, as if rotating on a computer screen. It would suggest the conquest of space, the notion of scientists challenging gravity.

Although the cube doesn’t literally float, it gives the impression of weightlessness because it intersects the building at two points. (A third point rests on the ground.)

*

Christopher Coe, director of Arquitectonica’s Southern California office in Beverly Hills, said this prominent feature “is likely to intrigue people because of its precarious balance, its size and how it’s put together. [People will wonder:] How do you make it that large yet not a solid object?”

Engineered by Advanced Structures Inc. in Santa Monica--which developed a computer model to determine the size of the tubes (struts) and balls (nodes) that compose the framework--the cube was assembled by hand in sections and hoisted by a crane.

In contrast to the hard-edged, high-tech cube, other exterior elements of the science center building relate to organic life on Earth. Undulating strata of tan, peach and ochre are intended to evoke the California soil. The canted walls of the glass entryway were envisioned as facets of a crystal, an element formed from the earth. The curving blue canopy suggests the sky or a cloud formation.

*

While the big news is on the exterior, brightly colored walls help define the cavernous space inside as a series of separate areas, each devoted to a different type of hands-on display.

The first floor, which has exhibits about earth science and human perception, is painted in shades of blue and green. A tiny arc-shaped Sun Stage for science demonstrations blazes in orange and tomato red. Wave forms on one wall look vaguely windblown. Exposed ducts on the ceiling reinforce the casual air.

Upstairs, where the theme switches to sources of energy and space exploration, the decor becomes a bit more aggressive.

A jagged yellow ceiling element marks the area where visitors can activate snatches of music by breaking invisible beams of energy with their bodies. Metal-sheathed columns double as magnet holders. A zigzagging balcony offers a perch for visitors activating a wizardly ceiling-mounted “manipulator arm.”

Other features of the museum include a small 3-D Laser Theater, a computer room, a “kid station” complete with rocket and communications system, a cafeteria, a shop and a utilitarian traveling exhibits area.

Fort-Brescia said he expects people to come up with their own ideas of what his buildings mean. Yet he is quite sure that anyone who spots the building from afar will instinctively realize it’s about science.

“And also,” he added, “that it’s entertaining--it’s not a research center. The cube has a feeling of the spectacular. We want people to feel: This must be interesting!”

* Discovery Science Center, 2500 N. Main St., Santa Ana. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. $8 adults, $6 for children 3-17 and seniors 55 and older. Reservations required today through Jan. 31. (714) 542-2823.