STEVE HALL © Hedrich Blessing
GARY POPE/Courtesy Flickr
Left: Rain and snow water is stored and recycled for plant irrigation in the museum’s courtyard. Below: Carmike Cinemas’ Majestic 12 uses solar power and recycled water.
Majestic 12, Tennessee http://goo.gl/IQExbR which are recycled) and a high-efficiency HVAC, heating, ventilating and air conditioning, that features an ‘energy recovery wheel’ system (as warm air is cycled outside, heat and humidity are transferred to incoming air, regulating temperature). The structure is also designed to receive 70 percent of its light from natural sources, and water-efficient fixtures complement an onsite rain and gray water reuse system that reduces water consumption by 20 percent.” According to architecture website ArchDaily, the museum’s design “stresses both the symbolic need of a museum to be a civic icon within the city, plus fulfilling humanistic needs for people to have their own experience with art. It is grand in its presence, and intimate in the experience, working in harmony.” Carmike Cinemas’ Majestic 12, Tennessee When you think of a luxury movie theater, you most likely imagine the lights going down as you settle back into a plush seat and feast on buttered popcorn, while the opening credits roll. What you don’t imagine is that the movie screen is being lit up by solar power. Also, the water you just washed your hands with in the bathroom was collected through rainwater harvesting. Even the walls of the theater are made of recycled material. Majestic 12, a premium movie theater in Chattanooga, Tennessee, is out to change the perception 30 MAY/JUNE 2015
that entertaining can’t be ecofriendly. The 12-screen, 2,500 seat theater is part of the Carmike Cinemas chain based in Georgia. But, it is a little different from the rest. Built for $12 million in 2010, Majestic 12 is the first movie theater in the United States to receive a LEED Gold certification for not only its use of solar power, but also its low-energy lighting and use of recycled rainwater in bathrooms and for landscaping. According to MotherNatureNetwork.com, Majestic 12 also boasts of “the use of low-VOC (volatile organic compound) paints, finishes, carpets and adhesives; the use of recycled content and local building materials; a high percentage of recycled construction waste; and a public transit-friendly location right off a stop on Chattanooga’s electric bus line.” Other movie theaters have tried to implement similar ecofriendly attributes. For example, in 2004, the Palm Theater in San Luis Obispo, California, became the first completely solar-powered theater in the United States. In 2011, the AMC Randhurst 12 in Mount Prospect, Illinois, joined Majestic 12 by receiving a LEED Silver certification. But the 70,000-square-foot Majestic 12 remains the first of its kind to implement such advanced ecofriendly modifications. Now that’s simply majestic! Anne Walls is a writer and filmmaker based in Los Angeles, California.