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War Memorial Opera House

War Memorial Opera House

Arthur Brown Jr. & G. Albert Lansburgh

Location
Civic Center, San Francisco, California, United States
Client / Owner
San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center
Year
Completed 1932
Access
Tickets required
Typology
Cultural

The War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco was designed by Arthur Brown Jr. and G. Albert Lansburgh, a theater designer. A 4 million dollar municipal bond issue of 1927 paid for what the article calls the first municipally owned opera house in the United States. It opened on October 15, 1932.

The style is a restrained Classic Roman Doric order, influenced by the Louvre Colonnade. Paired columns screen tall arch-headed windows above a rusticated basement. The entrance hall has a barrel-vaulted coffered ceiling. The theater seats 3,146, with a large chandelier under a blue vault and a gilded figurative proscenium arch. The article names no materials.

It hosted the 1945 conference that organized the United Nations and the 1951 treaty signing with Japan. The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake led to a seismic retrofit. The San Francisco Opera and San Francisco Ballet are the tenants. The article gives no hours.

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