Lara Croft Unearths 13-Foot Screen in Tomb Raider Theater
By CE Pro Editors
Cavernous home theater dimly lit with stone floor, much like mausoleums Lara Croft scours.

Theaters like this one, the Gold Winner for Best Themed Theater in the Electronic House Home of the Year Awards, are often found in multimillion-dollar homes. So one would never guess that above the garage in this modest home in White Bear Lake, Minn., sits a world-class theater.

Authentic-looking accouterments inspired by the movie Tomb Raider commingle with precision audio/video to transport guests to the catacombs of ancient Egypt, or wherever the movie plot takes them.



“It’s rare that you meet a client like this - an enthusiast who is so excited about the project that they become engrossed in the design of the theater,” says Lance Anderson, president of Admit One. “Most of the larger projects we do are in homes where the owners consider the theater to be just another room in the house. In this case, however, Paul and Rachel [the owners] actually added a room to the house for a no-comprise home cinema.”

Soundproofing didn’t present nearly as big a hurdle as the room acoustics, though. The theater’s faux stonework, designed to look 4,000 years old, served as a major thematic element, but the hard, reflective surface made the audio sound harsh.

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