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38-556: Previously, the symphony shared the neighboring War Memorial Opera House with the San Francisco Opera and San Francisco Ballet . The construction of Davies Hall allowed the symphony to expand to a full-time, year-round schedule. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Pietro Belluschi along with acoustical consultants Bolt, Beranek and Newman , its modern design is visually elegant both inside and out. A "cloud" of movable convex acrylic reflecting panels over

76-412: A cost of $ 10 million which resulted in substantial improvement. The modifications included: narrowing and shaping the walls above the stage to reduce the volume of space and increase useful reflections, replacing the cloud of reflector discs with a more effective array of curved rectangular panels covering a larger area and now computer adjustable, moving the walls of the floor-level seating inward to make

114-508: A curtain wall, with the next structural wall forming the back wall of the lobby spaces. Passing through a door leads to a hallway, bounded on one side by the lobby wall and on the other by the structural wall of the inner building. This continuous hallway acts as an acoustical isolator and is surfaced with sound absorbing material. However, the hall's large volume and seating capacity initially resulted in less than ideal results. Kirkegaard Associates completed acoustical renovations in 1992 at

152-472: A severe rusticated basement, a scheme that was influenced by the severe design of the Louvre Colonnade . The interior contains a grand entrance hall with a high barrel vaulted and coffered ceiling parallel to the street, with overlooks from staircase landings at each end. The theater space is dominated by a massive aluminum and glass panel chandelier under a blue vault, and the proscenium arch

190-466: A style that discouraged loitering. The plaza was then extensively excavated for underground parking. At this time a central rectangular pond, with an extensive array of water vents (strangely, all in several strict rows and all pointing east, with identical arcs of water, and completely without sculptural embellishment), was added, with extensive groves of trees (again, in 60s modernist style, planted with absolute military precision on rectangular grids). In

228-583: Is 19 ft (5.8 m) higher than the United States Capitol , and has a diameter of 112 ft (34 m), resting upon 4 x 50 ton (44.5 metric ton) and 4 x 20 ton (17.8 metric ton) girders, each 9 ft (2.7 m) deep and 60 ft (18 m) long. The building as a whole contains 7,900 tons (7,035 metric tons) of structural steel from the American Bridge Company of Ambridge, Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh . It

266-472: Is decorated with gilded figurative sculpture. The theater has 3,146 seats plus standing room for 200 behind the orchestra and balcony sections. The War Memorial Opera House was given its inaugural opening on October 15, 1932 with a performance of Giacomo Puccini 's Tosca by the San Francisco Opera . The performance was led by Claudia Muzio as the title heroine with Dino Borgioli as Mario Cavaradossi and Alfredo Gandolfi as Baron Scarpia. The production

304-588: Is faced with Madera County granite on the exterior, and Indiana sandstone within, together with finish marbles from Alabama , Colorado , Vermont , and Italy . Much of the statuary is by Henri Crenier . The upper levels of the Rotunda are public and handicapped accessible. Opposite the grand staircase, on the second floor, is the office of the Mayor. Bronze busts of former Mayor George Moscone and his successor, Dianne Feinstein , stand nearby as tacit reminders of

342-622: Is more than 500,000 square feet (46,000 m ) and occupies two full city blocks. It is 390 ft (120 m) between Van Ness Avenue and Polk Street , and 273 ft (83 m) between Grove and McAllister Streets. Its dome , which owes much to Mansart 's Baroque domes of the Val-de-Grâce (church) and Les Invalides in Paris, rises 307.5 ft (93.7 m) above the Civic Center Historic District . It

380-622: Is part of the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center . It has been the home of the San Francisco Opera since opening night in 1932. It was the site of the San Francisco Conference , the first assembly of the newly organized United Nations in April 1945. In 1927, $ 4 million in municipal bonds were issued to finance the design and construction of the first municipally owned opera house in

418-560: 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 epitomized the high-minded American Renaissance of the 1880s to 1917. The structure's dome is taller than that of the United States Capitol by 42 feet (13 m). The present building replaced an earlier City Hall that

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456-570: The Loma Prieta earthquake caused major damage to the Opera House. The architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and the theatrical consulting firm of Auerbach and Associates were retained in 1992 to oversee the building's technical renovation and a seismic retrofit . At this time additional private donations were raised for extensive technical improvements. These include: San Francisco City Hall San Francisco City Hall

494-684: The Moscone assassination , which took place just a few yards from that spot in the smaller rotunda of the mayor's office entrance. A bust of former county supervisor Harvey Milk , who was assassinated in the building was unveiled on May 22, 2008. The inscription that dominates the grand Rotunda and the entrance to the mayor's small rotunda, right below Father Time, reads: SAN • FRANCISCO O • GLORIOVS • CITY • OF • OVR HEARTS • THAT • HAST • BEEN TRIED • AND • NOT • FOVND WANTING • GO • THOV • WITH LIKE • SPIRIT • TO • MAKE THE • FVTVRE • THINE 1912 JAMES ROLPH JR. MAYOR 1931 The words were written by

532-531: The Treaty of San Francisco , declaring peace with Japan was drafted and signed here and in the Herbst Theatre . During the years of Kurt Herbert Adler '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 were the first pop act to perform at the theatre. In 1979

570-717: The 1906 earthquake laid there in 1917. President Warren G. Harding laid here in 1923. Former mayor and governor James Rolph was laid in state in City Hall following his death in 1934. Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe were married at City Hall in January 1954. In May 1960, the main Rotunda was a site of a student protest against the House Un-American Activities Committee and a countering police action whereby students from UC Berkeley, Stanford, and other local colleges were fire hosed down

608-483: The 1990s, with the rise of the problem of homelessness , the plaza was once again remodeled to make it somewhat less habitable—although the most significant change, the replacement of the pond and pumps with a lawn, could be reasonably justified on the basis of energy and water conservation . The building features color changeable LED lighting at the outside of the Rotunda, and between the exterior columns. The colors change to coincide with different events happening in

646-584: The South Light Court display, Progress . From 1849 to 1850, San Francisco's municipal government was on the west side of Portsmouth Square at the Office of the Alcalde , who was the municipal magistrate , with both judicial and administrative functions, and the ayuntamiento , the town council, or cabildo . In May 1850, after the first City Charter was adopted, the first San Francisco City Hall

684-807: The United States. The architects of the building complex were Arthur Brown Jr. , who had also designed the adjacent San Francisco City Hall between 1912 and 1916, and G. Albert Lansburgh , a theater designer responsible for San Francisco's Orpheum and the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles . 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 (1914/17–1918). A colonnade of paired columns screens colossal arch-headed windows above

722-557: The Wattis Room, a private dining room for major donors. A proposed recital hall was never built; that portion of the site remains empty, and is used for employee parking. A Henry Moore bronze sculpture, Large Four Piece Reclining Figure 1972–73 (1973), is displayed outside the hall at the corner of Grove Street and Van Ness Avenue. Davies Hall also occasionally hosts non-orchestral performances by contemporary musicians. In 1980, Paul Goldberger of The New York Times called

760-419: The audience area narrower and more rectangular, adding aisles to replace the former continental seating, adding diffusing elements in various parts of the hall, and increasing the "rake" of the floor seating to provide better sightlines. In addition, the firm installed risers on the stage allowing musicians to both see and hear each other better. These and other improvements enhanced not only the acoustics but also

798-542: 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 , 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,

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836-486: The concert hall itself, an adjoining building contains the Harold L. Zellerbach Rehearsal Hall, comprising three separate rehearsal spaces. The largest of these was designed to be the same size as the stage of the Opera House across the street to accommodate Opera and Ballet rehearsals. Davies Hall also contains offices for symphony staff, a music library, dressing rooms, a recreation room and lockers for Symphony musicians, and

874-460: The earthquake for the Civic Center complex called for a neo-classical design as part of the city beautiful movement, as well as a desire to rebuild the city in time for the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition . A bond was authorized for $ 8.8 million on March 28, 1912, of which the new City Hall was budgeted for $ 3.5 million to $ 4 million. After Arthur Brown Junior's design

912-519: The end of construction. The ruins of the old City Hall were sold shortly thereafter in August 1916 for US$ 2,300 (equivalent to $ 64,000 in 2023), with removal to be completed within 40 days. The main rotunda served as the site where many prominent politicians and public servants were laid in state. General Fredrick Funston , hero of the Spanish–American War , Philippine–American War , and

950-568: The hall "a building utterly confused about style, a poor hybrid that has neither the verve of one aspect of the city's identity nor the powerful tradition of another." San Francisco War Memorial Opera House The War Memorial Opera House is an opera house in San Francisco , California , located on the western side of Van Ness Avenue across from the west side/rear facade of the San Francisco City Hall . It

988-567: The hall's beauty. The Fratelli Ruffatti electro-pneumatic pipe organ with 147 ranks was added in 1984. It is designed to accommodate repertory from the pre-baroque to the present. The console can be electronically reprogrammed to correspond to the two major schools of organ keyboard organization, the German and the French. The console is mobile and can be placed where appropriate to the program or stored off-stage when not in use. In addition to

1026-522: The leadership of the San Francisco Bureau of Architecture in collaboration with Carey & Co. preservation architects, and Forell/Elsesser Engineers, work was completed to render the building earthquake resistant through a base isolation system, which would likely prevent total collapse of the building. City Hall reopened after its seismic upgrade in January 1999, and was the world's largest base-isolated structure at that time. Prior to

1064-439: The plans were shelved in the wake of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake , which destroyed the 1899 City Hall. Ever since the fire the ample ruins of the old city hall have been displayed to visitors. There is hardly a citizen that has not been embarrassed at some time or other by pertinent questions about our city hall. Mayor James "Sunny Jim" Rolph , 1912 San Francisco Call editorial Reconstruction plans following

1102-509: The previous Mayor Edward Robeson Taylor , and dedicated by Mayor James Rolph . While plaques at the Mall entrance memorialize President George Washington 's farewell address and President Abraham Lincoln 's Gettysburg Address , the primary themes of the statuary are to the past mayors, with the dates of their terms in office. The medallions in the vaults of the Rotunda are of Equality , Liberty , Strength , Learning and, as memorialized in

1140-568: The retrofitting, the San Francisco County Superior Court ’s civil courtrooms were located in City Hall but have been located across the street at the 400 McAllister courthouse since it opened in 1997. The original grand plaza has undergone several extensive renovations, with radical changes in its appearance and utility. Prior to the 1960s there were extensive brick plazas, few trees, and a few large, simple, raised, and circular ponds with central fountains, all in

1178-410: The stage enables the acoustic space to be adjusted to suit the size of the orchestra and audience, while adjustable fabric banners around the auditorium can alter the reverberation time from approximately one to two-and-one-half seconds. Architects created acoustic isolation of the performance space by constructing a building within a building. The outer building uses one inch thick structural glass as

Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall - Misplaced Pages Continue

1216-490: The steps beneath the rotunda. This event was memorialized by students during the Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley four years later. On November 27, 1978, former Supervisor Dan White assassinated Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk inside of City Hall. The Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 damaged the structure, and twisted the dome four inches (102 mm) on its base. Afterward, under

1254-472: Was bounded by Larkin Street, McAllister Street, and City Hall Avenue (a street, now built over, which ran from the corner of Grove and Larkin to the corner of McAllister and Leavenworth), largely where the current public library and U.N. Plaza stand today. Noted city planner and architect Daniel Burnham published a plan in 1905 to redesign the city, including a new Civic Center complex around City Hall, but

1292-635: Was destroyed during the 1906 earthquake , which was two blocks from the present one. The principal architect was Arthur Brown, Jr. , of Bakewell & Brown, whose attention to the finishing details extended to the doorknobs and the typeface to be used in signage . Brown also designed the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House , Veterans Building , Temple Emanuel , Coit Tower and the Federal office building at 50 United Nations Plaza . The building's vast open space

1330-491: Was established at the former Graham House on the corner of Kearny and Pacific streets, which was later consumed by the great fire of June 1851. In 1852, San Francisco City Hall was at 750 Kearny Street between Washington and Merchant Streets, at the converted Jenny Lind Theatre building and Parker House, located then between the El Dorado Hotel and The Union , opposite the east side of Portsmouth Square. Later, this

1368-491: Was selected from the competition, construction started in 1913 and was completed by 1915, in time for the Exposition. Ground was broken for the 1916 City Hall at Van Ness and Fulton on April 5, 1913, and the cornerstone was laid on October 25 of that year. Mayor Rolph moved into City Hall on December 28, 1915, the final stone was laid on March 31, 1916, and scaffolding was finally removed on July 28, officially marking

1406-513: Was staged by Armando Agnini and the music forces were led by conductor Gaetano Merola . The San Francisco Symphony performed most of its concerts in the house, from 1932 to 1980. In spring of 1945, the United Nations had its San Francisco Conference (UN Conference on International Organization) first organizing assembly there. The UN Charter was later drafted and signed in the Herbst Theatre next door. Six years later in 1951,

1444-471: Was the site of a Hall of Justice , as seen on the TV series, Ironside . The 1916 City Hall building is a replacement for the 1899 building, begun in 1871, which was designed by Augustus Laver and Thomas Stent and completed in 1899 after 27 years of planning and construction. The 1899 city hall was a much larger building which also contained a smaller extension which contained the city's Hall of Records. It

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