OTHERWORLD

in which visitors interact with lights, large props, computer projections and more as they negotiate their way through about 50 unique spaces, according to creative director Jordan Renda.

Experiences might include figuring out a puzzle that unlocks a secret room or exploring a room in which everything appears to have melted. Along the way, visitors will have opportunities to alter the experience, by pushing buttons, for example.

Renda, 25, is a 2015 Ohio State University graduate. He owns Codescape, an escape-room company in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he now lives. He has owned haunted attractions as well.

Renda said he began putting together the concept for Otherworld in August 2017; he expects it to open late this year or in early 2019.

“We want to create these immersive experiences and take people out of the ‘everyday’ a little bit,” Renda said. “We want to remind them that there is a whole world of fantasy and imagination out there.”

He leased the 25,000 square-foot building in November, then put together a crew of artists and other creative specialists. Work began on the space in June.

On a recent weekday, about 20 people were on the job — architects looking over blueprints as well as welders, painters, and sculptors hard at work, many of them shaping the trunk and branches of a large "Tree of Life."

Renda said one of his inspirations for Otherworld was the work of Meow Wolf, a Santa Fe, New Mexico, company that creates immersive-art installations. On a video that appears on the Meow Wolf website, visitors to its 2016 permanent exhibit “House of Eternal Return” described their experience as, “like a really trippy video game in real life,” “a Salvador Dali painting,” and “a million different dimensions.”

Renda and Rutkowski stressed that Otherworld will be family-friendly, avoiding gore and big scares.

Annie Lewis, a painter, is one of seven crew members from the Future TBD art collective in Austin, Texas, who travelled to Columbus to work on Otherworld. She called the project’s tone, “cute-creepy.”

Renda said he expects admission to be in the $20 range for adults, and less for children.

And despite the struggle to define exactly what Otherworld will be, Rutkowski said it will be a unique addition to central Ohio.

“I don’t know of anything else quite like it.” Painter Annie Lewis works on flora for Otherworld.