Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

A view of the Taubman Museum of Art where the IMAX theater was originally planned.

Once upon a time, the place now known as the Taubman Museum of Art was supposed to have an IMAX theater inside.

IMAX, the popular large format theater that immerses viewers in sometimes vertigo-inducing action, was going to help produce the revenue to run the expensive new museum.

When museum leaders started looking harder at the numbers, however, that logic collapsed.

"Several studies showed that wasn't going to be an economically sound thing to do," explained Georganne Bingham, the museum's executive director.

The IMAX Corp., whose technology debuted at the 1967 World's Fair in Montreal, last turned a profit in 2005 and lost $27 million last year, according to an Aug. 1 story by David Landis on Kiplinger.com. Museum officials dropped the IMAX idea in March 2005.

Now comes Plan B.

The museum and architect Randall Stout have converted the former IMAX space into a multipurpose hall that can serve as a conventional movie theater, a small concert hall, a playhouse and an art exhibit space, among other things. It can also be used for rentals, Bingham said.

"We can do drama. We can do real theater," said Bingham. "Film is a big thing in art museums right now. It's going to be a very flexible space."

The shape of the museum, designed to accommodate an IMAX, has never been redrawn. The new theater will make use of only the lower part of the IMAX space. The upper part has been turned into a new 4,000 square-foot gallery, which is walled off until the museum finds a use for it.

Because the theater plans were changed, construction on the theater space lags behind the rest of the museum, which is nearly finished. Bingham said the theater should be completed by Nov. 1, a week before the museum's opening day.

Then-Washington Post architecture writer Benjamin Forgey, in an otherwise glowing review of Stout's design in 2005, took the museum to task for not letting Stout redesign the building when the IMAX was dropped from its plans.

Because of the missing IMAX, the museum "will just happen to have what is almost certainly destined to be the tallest -- and oddest -- 'multipurpose' room in the world," he wrote.

Forgey later called the IMAX matter "a fiasco."

Adjustable seats, stage

The theater area is no longer all that tall, of course, because the space has been divided into two floors.

Museum officials meanwhile prefer to look at the change in plans as an opportunity. Bingham has said she is excited by the possibilities the new space presents.

Because the space was intended for a theater and has its own entrance, she said, it can keep separate hours from the museum. "We could show 'Star Wars' movies all night long," she said.

She said the new space, with room for as many as 185 seats, will be "very intimate, where you're carrying on a conversation with the performer."

Bingham, who is faced with the need to meet a hefty $3.7 million operating budget once the new museum opens, also said the space will potentially bring in needed revenue.

Stout noted the space will still be used for some of the things it was originally intended for -- film, for one. And museum officials had always intended to use the IMAX space for other things, too.

"When IMAX went away, it didn't change the thoughts about having a space that can accommodate some of these things," he said.

Stout said the new space will include a ceiling-mounted movie projector, with additional hookups for two more projectors aimed at different walls. There will also be stage lights and upscale retractable seats, complete with arms and padded cushions and backs. The seats can be configured either all facing the stage or nearly in the round, with seats surrounding the stage on three sides. The stage can be removed as the seats retract, leaving an open area for rental or for art.

Stout conceded the lines of the building still reflect the IMAX. A bulge over the sidewalk on Salem Avenue, for example, was designed to contain the big IMAX projection equipment, though it serves as an entrance canopy as well. The space now contains other mechanical equipment.

Bingham said they have not considered removing that overhang from the $66 million building. "It kind of draws people to the museum," she said.

As for the extra space upstairs, it will come in handy as the museum grows, said Stout. "It's a big space that will serve them well."

Addition, not competition

Kathy Chittum, executive director of the Grandin Theatre Foundation, sounded a note of caution. The Grandin arts-related films, she said, seldom turn a profit.

"It's apples and oranges," she said of running a museum and running a movie theater. "They'll have to do a lot of due diligence on it. ... I'd be happy to talk to them about. I would be open to helping them."

William Penn, who handles bookings for the 180-seat Barlow Performance Hall at the Dumas Center on Henry Street, said he didn't foresee having to compete for business with the new art museum theater space.

"I don't think it's going to be that much competition. Our venue is pretty special. It's not that big. And we're reasonable with our rates," Penn said.

Mill Mountain Theatre's artistic director, Patrick Benton, said he welcomed a new theater venue, and could imagine Mill Mountain actors performing in the new space.

"If the stars line up, sure," Benton said.

Bingham stressed they aren't trying to compete with anyone.

"We're just trying to offer different types of entertainment and become a community-based art museum that is very alive and welcomes everyone," she said.