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Museum of Photographic Art (MOPA)

Balboa Park

San Diego, CA

The mission of the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park is to inspire, educate and engage the broadest possible audience through the presentation, collection, and preservation of photography, film and video. It reopened in 2000 four times larger (and better) than the original with 31,200sf accommodating a 27,000 volume library, a 228-seat state-of the-art THX™ / Dolby certified theater and five galleries for the permanent collection and traveling exhibitions. MCH provided full-scope acoustical and AV consulting for the entire facility but focusing largely on the unique demands of multiple studio-quality film, cinema (16mm and 35mm) and video projection systems and the principal space in which they are presented. Of the $3,800,000 construction cost the theater AV equipment alone, comprised $500,000.


  • 228-seat THX™ / Dolby theater

  • $3.8M

  • 31,200sf


Architect: David Raphael Singer

Opened: 1983

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