The Varsity Theatre was a single-screen

Mission Revival The Mission Revival style was part of an architectural movement, beginning in the late 19th century, for the revival and reinterpretation of American colonial styles. Mission Revival drew inspiration from the late 18th and early 19th century ...

movie palace located on University Avenue in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was es ...

. The building is notable for its distinctive neon marquee and elongated,

colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or cur ...

-lined courtyard. Varsity_Theater,_Palo_Alto,_CA_(2771898984)

History

Following its closure as a theater in 1994, the space was converted into a Borders Bookstore. The chain preserved the exterior and most of the original interior of the building. When Borders was liquidated in 2011, the building remained vacant until 2015. In 2015

Gensler Gensler is a global design and architecture firm founded in San Francisco, California, in 1965. In 2021, Gensler generated $1.235 billion in revenue, the most of any architecture firm in the U.S. As of 2021, Gensler operated offices in 49 citi ...

renovated the building to accommodate HanaHaus, a community workspace, and a Blue Bottle Cafe.

References

{{reflist, 100em, refs= ''An Architectural Guidebook to San Francisco and the Bay Area,'' by Susan Dinkelspiel Cerny,

Gibbs Smith Gibbs Smith is an American publisher based in Utah. The publishing house was founded in 1969 by Gibbs M. Smith (1940–2017) and his wife Catherine. Its offerings include children's books, including the BabyLit line, cookbooks, home reference bo ...

(2007), p. 176; {{OCLC, 495265729

External links

Cinema Treasures
Varsity Theatre profile

Includes information and recent images of the Varsity's exterior
Waymarking
Building profile Cinemas and movie theaters in California Buildings and structures in Palo Alto, California Former cinemas in the United States Event venues established in 1927 Mission Revival architecture in California 1927 establishments in California