The War Memorial Opera House is an

opera house An opera house is a theatre building used for performances of opera. It usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and building sets. While some venues are constructed specifically fo ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, located on the western side of

Van Ness Avenue Van Ness Avenue is a north–south thoroughfare in San Francisco, California. Originally named Marlette Street, the street was renamed Van Ness Avenue in honor of the city's sixth mayor, James Van Ness. The main part of Van Ness Avenue runs fro ...

across from the west side/rear facade of the

San Francisco City Hall San Francisco City Hall is the seat of government for the City and County of San Francisco, California. Re-opened in 1915 in its open space area in the city's Civic Center, it is a Beaux-Arts monument to the City Beautiful movement that epitomi ...

. It is part of the

San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center The San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center (SFWMPAC) is located in San Francisco, California. It is one of the largest performing arts centers in the United States. It covers 7.5 acres (3 hectares) in the Civic Center Historic Dist ...

. It has been the home of the

San Francisco Opera San Francisco Opera (SFO) is an American opera company founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola (1881–1953) based in San Francisco, California. History Gaetano Merola (1923–1953) Merola's road to prominence in the Bay Area began in 1906 when h ...

since opening night in 1932. It was the site of the

San Francisco Conference The United Nations Conference on International Organization (UNCIO), commonly known as the San Francisco Conference, was a convention of delegates from 50 Allied nations that took place from 25 April 1945 to 26 June 1945 in San Francisco, Calif ...

, the first assembly of the newly organized

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

in April 1945.

Architecture

In 1927, $4 million in municipal bonds were issued to finance the design and construction of the first municipally owned opera house in the United States. The architects of the building complex were

Arthur Brown Jr. Arthur Brown Jr. (1874–1957) was an American architect, based in San Francisco and designer of many of its landmarks. He is known for his work with John Bakewell Jr. as Bakewell and Brown, along with later works after the partnership dissolved ...

, who had also designed the adjacent

between 1912 and 1916, and

G. Albert Lansburgh Gustave Albert Lansburgh (January 7, 1876 – April 1969) was an American architect largely known for his work on luxury cinemas and theaters. He was the principal architect of theaters on the West Coast from 1900 to 1930. Life and career Lan ...

, a theater designer responsible for San Francisco's Orpheum and the

Shrine Auditorium The Shrine Auditorium is a landmark large-event venue in Los Angeles, California. It is also the headquarters of the Al Malaikah Temple, a division of the Shriners. It was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument (No. 139) in 1975, and ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

. Completed in 1932, it employs the classic Roman Doric order in a reserved and sober form appropriate to its function commemorating all those who served in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

(1914/17–1918). A colonnade of paired columns screens colossal arch-headed windows above a severe rusticated basement, a scheme that was influenced by the severe design of the

Louvre Colonnade The Louvre Colonnade is the easternmost façade of the Palais du Louvre in Paris. It has been celebrated as the foremost masterpiece of French Architectural Classicism since its construction, mostly between 1667 and 1674. The design, dominated b ...

The interior contains a grand entrance hall with a high barrel vaulted and

coffered ceiling A coffer (or coffering) in architecture is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault. A series of these sunken panels was often used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, als ...

parallel to the street, with overlooks from staircase landings at each end. War Memorial Opera House stage

The theater space is dominated by a massive aluminum and glass panel chandelier under a blue vault, and the proscenium arch is decorated with gilded figurative sculpture. The theater has 3,146 seats plus standing room for 200 behind the orchestra and balcony sections.

History

The

San Francisco Symphony The San Francisco Symphony (SFS), founded in 1911, is an American orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980 the orchestra has been resident at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in the city's Hayes Valley neighborhood. The San F ...

performed most of its concerts in the house, from 1932 to 1980. In spring of 1945, the

had its

(UN Conference on International Organization) first organizing assembly there. The

UN Charter The Charter of the United Nations (UN) is the foundational treaty of the UN, an intergovernmental organization. It establishes the purposes, governing structure, and overall framework of the UN system, including its six principal organs: th ...

was later drafted and signed in the

Herbst Theatre The Herbst Theatre is an auditorium in the War Memorial and Performing Arts Center in the Civic Center, San Francisco. The 928-seat hall hosts programs as diverse as '' City Arts & Lectures'', SF Jazz, and San Francisco Performances. Architect ...

next door. Six years later in 1951, the

Treaty of San Francisco The , also called the , re-established peaceful relations between Japan and the Allied Powers on behalf of the United Nations by ending the legal state of war and providing for redress for hostile actions up to and including World War II. It w ...

, declaring peace with

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

was drafted and signed here and in the

. During the years of

Kurt Herbert Adler Kurt Herbert Adler (2 April 1905 – 9 February 1988) was an Austrian-born American conductor and opera house director. Biography Adler was born in Vienna, Austria, to a Jewish family; his mother, Ida Bauer, was one of the first patients of ...

's general directorship, the inadequacies of the house became apparent as the season was expanded. In particular, there was a lack of office space and rehearsal space. In 1974,

The Pointer Sisters The Pointer Sisters are an American pop and R&B singing group from Oakland, California, that achieved mainstream success during the 1970s and 1980s. Their repertoire has included such diverse genres as pop, jazz, electronic music, bebop, bl ...

were the first pop act to perform at the theatre.Gamson, Joshua. ''The Fabulous Sylvester: The Legend, the Music, the Seventies in San Francisco''. Reprint edition. New York: Picador, 2006. In 1979 the backstage area was extended, followed in 1981 by the opening of a new wing built onto the house on the Franklin Street side. This gave spaces for sets, coaches, and dancers as well as more administrative space. At the same time, the nearby

Zellerbach Rehearsal Hall The San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center (SFWMPAC) is located in San Francisco, California. It is one of the largest performing arts centers in the United States. It covers 7.5 acres (3 hectares) in the Civic Center Historic Dist ...

, with a stage the same size as that of the Opera House, was opened as part of the complex which included the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall. In 1989, the

Loma Prieta earthquake The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake occurred on California's Central Coast on October 17 at local time. The shock was centered in The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park in Santa Cruz County, approximately northeast of Santa Cruz on a section of t ...

caused major damage to the Opera House. The architectural firm of

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is an American architectural, urban planning and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel A. Owings, Nathaniel Owings in Chicago, Illinois. In 1939, they were joined by engineer Jo ...

and the theatrical consulting firm of Auerbach and Associates were retained in 1992 to oversee the building's technical renovation and a

seismic retrofit Seismic retrofitting is the modification of existing structures to make them more resistant to seismic activity, ground motion, or soil failure due to earthquakes. With better understanding of seismic demand on structures and with our recent exp ...

. At this time additional private donations were raised for extensive technical improvements. These include: *State-of-the-art lighting system – which at the time, made it one of the most extensive and sophisticated systems in the world. *Replacement of chambers for a never-installed organ with modern restrooms, sorely needed since the original construction. The organ is not needed with the completion of the nearby

Davies Symphony Hall Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall is the concert hall component of the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center in San Francisco, California. The 2,743-seat hall was completed in 1980 at a cost of US$28 million to give the San Francisco ...

. *An underground extension below the neighboring plaza to accommodate additional dressing rooms and backstage facilities.

Appearances in Media

Foul Play (1978 film) ''Foul Play'' is a 1978 American romantic neo-noir comedy thriller film written and directed by Colin Higgins, and starring Goldie Hawn, Chevy Chase, Dudley Moore, Burgess Meredith, Eugene Roche, Rachel Roberts, Brian Dennehy and Billy Barty. I ...

* Heart and Souls (1993) *

Steve Jobs (film) ''Steve Jobs'' is a 2015 biographical drama film directed by Danny Boyle and written by Aaron Sorkin. A British-American co-production, it was adapted from the 2011 biography by Walter Isaacson and interviews conducted by Sorkin, and covers 1 ...

References

Bibliography

*Tilman, Jeffrey T. ''Arthur Brown Jr.: Progressive Classicist.'' New York: W.W. Norton, 2006

External links

San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center
{{Authority control 1932 establishments in California Arthur Brown Jr. buildings Beaux-Arts architecture in California Buildings and structures completed in 1932 Civic Center, San Francisco Culture of San Francisco Music venues completed in 1932 Music venues in San Francisco Opera houses in California San Francisco Designated Landmarks Theatres completed in 1932 Theatres in San Francisco