Giant Cube Touted as Fun Squared

Disney’s Epcot Center in Orlando, Fla., has that familiar sphere. Las Vegas has its hard-to-miss pyramid. In a few months, Santa Ana will have its own landmark: a giant cube standing on one of its corners.

“It’s going to stun Orange County,” said Karen Johnson, president of the soon-to-open Discovery Science Center.

The 117-foot-high cube, under construction in Lake Forest, is expected to become the center’s main attraction when it moves to 2500 N. Main St. in Santa Ana.

Balanced on a piece of iron the size of a bowling ball cut in half, the 400,000-pound cube is destined to become a local icon, Johnson said.

“Both its size and the fact that it will be balanced on one point is amazing, unusual, somewhat counterintuitive,” she said. “Everyone driving by on the [Santa Ana] Freeway will see it.”

The private, nonprofit center is set to open in October. The cube eventually will house an exhibit.

The $23.5-million center will include high-tech science exhibits in a 59,000-square-foot building. Johnson said visitors will learn how to make a rocket out of a plastic film canister, build a space rover and experience earthquakes of varying magnitudes. Other exhibits will let visitors walk through a tornado, create sand dunes and even make clouds.

“It’s going to be a fabulous educational experience for Orange County residents and tourists,” Johnson said. “And, the imagination that brings you the cube standing on a point will bring you a wonderful experience of fun science.”