On July 14, Los Angeles County will conduct a dedication and open house for its 1,200-seat John Anson Ford Theater, the 97-year-old outdoor performance center nestled in the Hollywood Hills that has received a $72.2 million facelift, which took more than four years to complete.
Two of the three construction phases for this project were completed a year ago, including the restoration of the Ford Amphitheater stage with a Brazilian walnut Ipe hardwood deck. The theater is adjacent to a 32-acre park, whose hillside sloping was stabilized with retaining walls and other erosion-control measures.
Artist support spaces have been expanded, and new theatrical and AV infrastructure was installed, including the creation of a sound wall that encompasses a projection booth and control room, catwalks, and an upgraded lighting platform. A sound barrier will help muffle vehicular noise coming from the nearby Highway 101.
The outdoor theater is located in the hills of Cahuenga Pass, surrounded by a 32-acre park whose landscaping was stabilized and upgraded as part of the renovation. Image: Tom Bonner
In addition, a new three-story structure with a full-service loading dock below and offices above was constructed. An 87-seat black box theater, [Inside] the Ford, was repurposed as a 580-sf self-serve food marketplace and community room. All told the renovation and restoration added 3,500 sf of “found space” from bedrock under the stage, and a 2,315-sq picnic terrace that can seat up to 110. (Crumble Catering is the marketplace partner.)
The John Anson Ford Amphitheater has always been a less-conspicuous, littler cousin to the more-famous, 17,500-seat Hollywood Bowl.
Among the refurbishings of John Anson Ford Amphitheater is the installation of a new Ipe hardware deck for the stage. Image: Tom Bonner
Opened in 1920, the amphitheater was designed, somewhat bizarrely, to resemble the gates of ancient Jerusalem. Christine Wetherill Stevenson, heiress to the Pittsburgh Paint fortune and a playwright, was instrumental in securing the land and building for the original theater, which staged her drama “The Pilgrimage Play.”
In 1976, the theater was renamed in honor of John Anson Ford, and L.A. County supervisor who founded the L.A. County Arts Commission. (The county owns the theater.)
The Building Team for the renovation and restoration included Levin & Associates Architects (design architect), Pankow Builders (construction services), Cumming Construction Management (project manager), Structural Focus (SE), Lucci & Associates (EE), The Sullivan Partnership (M/P engineer), Mollenhauer Group (CE, Survey), McKay Conant Hoover (acoustical and AV engineer), Wiss Janney Elstner Associates (material conservation), Mia Lehrer + Associates (landscape architect), Horton Lees Brogden (lighting design), Leighton (geotechnical), Sussman Prejza & Company (signage), and Theatre Projects (theatrical).
Related Stories
| Jan 4, 2011
An official bargain, White House loses $79 million in property value
One of the most famous office buildings in the world—and the official the residence of the President of the United States—is now worth only $251.6 million. At the top of the housing boom, the 132-room complex was valued at $331.5 million (still sounds like a bargain), according to Zillow, the online real estate marketplace. That reflects a decline in property value of about 24%.
| Dec 17, 2010
Sam Houston State arts programs expand into new performance center
Theater, music, and dance programs at Sam Houston State University have a new venue in the 101,945-sf, $38.5 million James and Nancy Gaertner Performing Arts Center. WHR Architects, Houston, designed the new center to connect two existing buildings at the Huntsville, Texas, campus.
| Nov 3, 2010
Park’s green education center a lesson in sustainability
The new Cantigny Outdoor Education Center, located within the 500-acre Cantigny Park in Wheaton, Ill., earned LEED Silver. Designed by DLA Architects, the 3,100-sf multipurpose center will serve patrons of the park’s golf courses, museums, and display garden, one of the largest such gardens in the Midwest.
| Oct 13, 2010
Biloxi’s convention center bigger, better after Katrina
The Mississippi Coast Coliseum and Convention Center in Biloxi is once again open for business following a renovation and expansion necessitated by Hurricane Katrina.
| Oct 13, 2010
Community center under way in NYC seeks LEED Platinum
A curving, 550-foot-long glass arcade dubbed the “Wall of Light” is the standout architectural and sustainable feature of the Battery Park City Community Center, a 60,000-sf complex located in a two-tower residential Lower Manhattan complex. Hanrahan Meyers Architects designed the glass arcade to act as a passive energy system, bringing natural light into all interior spaces.
| Oct 13, 2010
Bookworms in Silver Spring getting new library
The residents of Silver Spring, Md., will soon have a new 112,000-sf library. The project is aiming for LEED Silver certification.
| Oct 12, 2010
Holton Career and Resource Center, Durham, N.C.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Special Recognition. Early in the current decade, violence within the community of Northeast Central Durham, N.C., escalated to the point where school safety officers at Holton Junior High School feared for their own safety. The school eventually closed and the property sat vacant for five years.
| Oct 12, 2010
Richmond CenterStage, Richmond, Va.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Bronze Award. The Richmond CenterStage opened in 1928 in the Virginia capital as a grand movie palace named Loew’s Theatre. It was reinvented in 1983 as a performing arts center known as Carpenter Theatre and hobbled along until 2004, when the crumbling venue was mercifully shuttered.
| Oct 12, 2010
Gartner Auditorium, Cleveland Museum of Art
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Gartner Auditorium was originally designed by Marcel Breuer and completed, in 1971, as part of his Education Wing at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Despite that lofty provenance, the Gartner was never a perfect music venue.
| Sep 13, 2010
Second Time Around
A Building Team preserves the historic facade of a Broadway theater en route to creating the first green playhouse on the Great White Way.
