About a year and a half after its acquisition was first announced, Utah's Loveland Living Planet Aquarium has finally started erecting "The Claw" – a former U2 tour stage that will become the centrepiece of the aquarium's new plaza.
The Claw is a 165-ft tall (50.3m) structure that was used on the band's 360° Tour from 2009 to 2011. It travelled to 30 countries and was seen by more than 7.2 million people.
The aquarium, in Draper, Utah, is undergoing a major expansion that will see an 80,000sq ft (24,400sq m) Science Learning Campus built next to the plaza where The Claw will be situated. The plaza will have 7,000-seat and 350-seat outdoor venues and will be used to hold special events, festivals, movies in the park, imaginative play areas and a host of other activities underneath The Claw.
The delay in construction has been due to a number of structural modifications that The Claw has needed to perform its new role, according to a report in the local
Deseret News, which included its large steel frames being redesigned to handle snow loads, and making the structure more wind and earthquake-proof.
Although it is expected to be completed in November, this would likely coincide with it being covered in winter snow, so an official opening of the plaza might not happen until Q2 2020.
Once the plaza is completed, phase two will see the Science Learning Campus built. This will include a five-storey Asian cloud forest habitat, endangered species conservation centre, interactive science stations, indoor and outdoor animal exhibits, laboratories, classrooms and a banquet and conference centre.
In addition, underground – beneath the U2 stage – will be the Eco Command Center: a thematic experience, combining elements of escape rooms, simulators and team-building activities. Through digital content and virtual reality technology, "explorers" will be able to embark on science and ecology-based missions, battling deep oceans, rain forests, deserts and Arctic regions, and putting real science practices into action to successfully complete the mission.
Announcing the acquisition of The Claw last year, Brent Andersen, founder and CEO of the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium, commented: "This landmark will shine a light on our mission to inspire people to explore, discover and learn about the Earth's diverse ecosystems. We will use it to help people understand that the environments we live in are all interconnected as one global ecosystem, the living planet."
