Adler & Sullivan was an architectural firm founded by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan. It is known for designing the Auditorium Building in Chicago and the Wainwright Building in St Louis. In 1883 Louis Sullivan was added to Adler’s architectural firm, creating the Adler & Sullivan partnership.

Dankmar Adler was born in Stadt Lengfeld, Saxony on 3rd July 1844. At the age of 17 he emigrated to Chicago. After serving in the Civil War, he apprenticed with Augustus Bauer, and Ozias Kinney. He then associated with Edward Burling before practicing Architecture under his own name. Successful in his own right, Adler hired young Louis Sullivan during the building boom following the Great Chicago Fire. Sullivan served as Adler’s chief draughtsman for the Borden Block. By 1893 Sullivan was Adler’s full partner.

Louis Henri Sullivan was born on 3rd September 1856 in Boston. At the age of 16, he spent a year at MIT and then travelled to work with Frank Furness in Philadelphia. He moved to Chicago in 1873, working briefly with William LeBaron Jenney. Sullivan then spent three months at the Ecole des Beaux Arts before returning to Chicago in 1875, where he worked for Johnston and Edelman before joining Dankmar Adler.

Adler was German and Jewish with strong ethnic ties in Chicago and an interest in acoustics. French-trained Sullivan, arriving from Boston, was the artist. Together from 1880 until 1895 Adler & Sullivan produced more than 180 buildings and some of Chicago’s most important and most loved Architecture.

Adler left the partnership in 1895, a victim of the financial depression that followed the World’s Columbian Exposition. Adler & Sullivan continued to collaborate, but were never again partners. Adler died of a stroke in 1900. Sullivan survived until 14th April 1924, when he died penniless, alcoholic, and alone in a hotel room.

Information in part sourced from The Chicago Loop .

Theatres on this website in which this architect firm was involved:

Auditorium Theatre, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Born: 1866 (Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania)

Died: 1932 (Los Angeles, California)

Harrison Albright was an American architect best known for his innovative design of the West Baden Springs Hotel in Orange County, Indiana, which boasted the largest free-spanning dome in the world at the time of its construction.

Albright moved to Charleston, West Virginia in 1891 and was architect for the State of West Virginia in addition to designing residential projects. As State architect he designed an annex to the State Capitol, a state asylum at Huntington, West Virginia, the Miners’ Hospital in Fairmont, West Virginia and buildings at Shepherd University and the Preparatory Branch of West Virginia University at Keyser.

In 1901, Albright was hired by Indiana hotelier Lee Wiley Sinclair to design the landmark West Baden Springs Hotel which included the 200-foot-diameter (61 m) steel and glass dome which would be the largest free-spanning dome in the world until 1913 and the largest in America until the construction of the Bojangles’ Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1955.

In 1905, Albright moved his architectural practice to California, working in Los Angeles and San Diego, as early proponent of reinforced concrete construction. Albright’s 1905 Annex to the Homer Laughlin Building on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles was the city’s first reinforced concrete building.

John L. Wright, son of Frank Lloyd Wright, was employed in the Albright firm.

Harrison Albright retired from architecture for health reasons in 1925 and died in 1932.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, California, USA

Born: 1870 (Bodicote, UK)

Died: 1963 (Pasadena, California)

Austin was born in Bodicote, Oxfordshire, England and was an apprentice to architect Williams S. Barwick in the late 1880s.

Around age 18 Austin moved to the United States and worked as a draftsman for architect Benjamin Linfoot of Philadelphia from 1891–1892, before briefly returning to the UK in 1892 and then relocating to San Francisco where he was a draftsman at Mooser and Devlin from 1892-1895.

Austin moved to Los Angeles in 1895 and ultimately became one of the city’s leading architects, his work in the city including the Fremont Hotel, the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles City Hall, and the Guaranty Building, NBC Radio City Studios, and Hollywood High School in Hollywood.

Austin was also active in the civic affairs in Los Angeles. He was elected President of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce in 1930, where he initiated a public-art campaign to beautify the city through the erection of statuary and monuments.

Austin also served as the President of the State Board of Architectural Examiners, a member of the National Labor Board responsible for labor disputes in Southern California, President of the Southern California Historical Society, President of the Jonathan Club, and a 32nd degree Mason. In 1949, the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce presented Austin with its first ever Achievement Award. In 1963, Los Angeles Mayor Samuel Yorty presented Austin with a scroll commending him “for serving in an outstanding manner as a distinguished architect”.

Austin died in 1963 at his home in Pasadena, California.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Shrine Auditorium, California, USA

(main building)

The partnership of Floyd E. Stanbery (1891-1949) and Clifford A. Balch (1880-1965) was formed around 1920 and seems to have dissolved by the early-to-mid 1930s.

Balch was born in Minnesota and lived there until the late 1800s when his family relocated to California, where he lived in both Pasadena and downtown Los Angeles. Balch died in Los Angeles at the age of 83.

Stanbery was born in Iowa and lived in Mason City, relocating to California by 1920. Stanbery died in Los Angeles at the age of 57.

The architectural firm of Balch and Stanbury specialized in the design of movie theatres and was active across all of Southern California.

Theatres on this website in which this architect firm was involved:

Hanford Fox Theatre, California, USA

Visalia Fox Theatre, California, USA

Chicago-based Ralph L. Beaudry was an architect employed by United Studios, Inc. of Chicago as their overseeing architect for new and renovated movie theatres.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Stefanie H. Weill Center for the Performing Arts, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, USA

Elmer F. Behrens is understood to have designed around 12 theatres across northern Illinois, his last designed thought to be the 1931 Hub Theatre in Rochelle, Illinois.

Behrens previously worked with theatrical firm Rapp & Rapp of Chicago prior to designing theatres in St Charles, Pekin, Elmhurst, and Woodstock, Illinois.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Egyptian Theatre, DeKalb, Illinois, USA

Pekin Theatre, Pekin, Illinois, USA

Born: 1928 (Cleveland, Ohio)

Died: 2020 (Cleveland, Ohio)

Jack Alan Bialosky, Sr. served as a Lieutenant Jr. Grade in the Navy during World War II, then attended the Yale School of Architecture which exposed him to Frank Lloyd Wright, Eliel Saarinen, and Louis Kahn.

Bialosky earned his degree in 1949, and returned to Cleveland to work for Charles Coleman, a sole practitioner specializing in single family homes.

In 1951, at age 26, exuberance in a post-WWII America, combined with confidence in his own ability, led Bialosky to open his own practice in his Shaker Square apartment.

Bialosky passed away in 2020 however left behind him the multidisciplinary design firm Bialosky .

Information in part sourced from Bialosky .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Granada Theatre, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

(1950s remodel)

Born: 1876 (Odessa, Russia)

Died: 1931 (Winnipeg, Canada)

Max Zev Blankstein was born in 1876 in Odessa, Russia. He was the son of Mayer "Zisy" Kritchmar and Vichna "Vera" Dorfman. Max came of age during a dangerous time for Jewish people in the Russian empire, facing violence from pogroms, beginning in 1881. Russian law also discriminated against its Jewish citizens, who were disproportionately conscripted for military service while being excluded from educational institutions. To avoid military service, Mayer would buy papers off a "macher" (paper seller) sometime in the 1860s, changing the family name to Blankstein and their nationality to Austrian. Max’s education likely came from an apprenticeship under his father, which is more probable given the barriers to work and education faced by Russian Jews at the time. He would marry his wife, Esther (Goldin) Blankstein, the daughter of a family of prominent building contractors, on May 6, 1902.

In 1904 war erupted between the Russian and Japanese empires in Russia’s far east territories. Wishing to avoid military service, Max emigrated to Canada. Max established an architectural practice in Winnipeg at a time of growth, particularly within the city’s Jewish community. The closeness of this community gave Max privileged access to a regular clientele.

Max would also establish close ties with up and coming members of the business community. As a product of these relationships, his works would adorn the streets of Winnipeg’s important business, commercial, and industrial districts, including Main Street, Selkirk Avenue, and Jarvis Avenue. These connections would prove to be even more valuable than credentials, as Max’s first registered project came in 1907, roughly three years before he was accredited to practice architecture in Manitoba. He would establish his closest ties with the housing and apartment magnates Rueben Cohen and Abraham Cohen, as well as Jacob "Jake" Miles (later partnered with Nathan Rothstein) of Allied Amusement/Allied Theatres, one of the city’s leading theatre developers.

Max Blankstein would have five more children with Laika: Cecil, Eva, Evelyn, Fred (Ingy) and Morley. Evelyn, would become an architect in 1935, first working with her brother, Cecil, then Hobbs Glass. Evelyn was also amongst the first female architects to practice in Manitoba. Wolfe would work as a general contractor with Ladco. Morley would also graduate from architecture, founding the notable Winnipeg firm Blankstein Coop Gillmor Hanna. Perhaps the most notable of Max’s children to become an architect was Cecil, who helped to found the firm Green Blankstein Russell (GBR), which, amongst other projects, designed Winnipeg City Hall, Polo Park Shopping Centre, and Shaarey Zedek Synagogue. Younger generations of Blanksteins continue to practice architecture and design.

Max Blankstein was on the cutting edge of architecture in Winnipeg, exploring the Edwardian, arts and crafts, and art deco styles. The imagination and ornateness of his designs testify to Winnipeg’s willingness to take risks, something that fuelled rapid growth in Blankstein’s era. During the course of his twenty-five year practice in Canada, he would design at least two-hundred buildings. This figure is likely higher, as it is possible that Max was not listed as the architect on some projects in order to work around official procedures. He was a member of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, and is said to be the first registered Jewish architect in western Canada. He would pass away December 31, 1931, seven days after the opening of his last project, the Uptown Theatre.

Information sourced from the Winnipeg Architecture Foundation .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Lido Theatre, The Pas, Manitoba, Canada

Roxy Theatre, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Uptown Theatre, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Born: 1868 (Corbeil-Essonnes, France)

Died: 1952 (Louveciennes, France)

Bluysen, born Marie Joseph Auguste Bluysen in early June 1868, was a French architect and decorator.

Bluysen was a student at the French art school Beaux-Arts de Paris, graduating in 1897.

According to Wikipedia , Bluysen was an architect of the Ministry of the Colonies (1897), an architect in Paris (1899), and an architect of the Ministry of Post and Telegraphs (1912). He was a construction inspector in the Universal Exhibition of 1900.

Bluysen distinguished himself in the architecture of cinemas, theatres, and casinos.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Cinema Rex, Bordeaux, New Aquitania, France

Le Grand Rex, Paris, Paris, France

Boller Brothers, often written Boller Bros., was an architectural firm based in Kansas City, Missouri, which specialized in theatre design in the Midwestern United States during the first half of the 20th century.

Carl Heinrich Boller (1868–1946) and Robert Otto Boller (1887–1962) are credited with the design of almost 100 classic theatres ranging from small vaudeville venues to grand movie palaces.

About 20 Boller Brothers works are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Their work spans the US states of Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wyoming.

Detailed information on the Boller Brothers has been documented here  on the Historic Missourians website.

Information in part sourced from Wikipedia .

Theatres on this website in which this architect firm was involved:

Lensic Performing Arts Center, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

Midland Theatre, Kansas City, Missouri, USA

(assisting)

Missouri Theater, St. Joseph, Missouri, USA

Poncan Theatre, Ponca City, Oklahoma, USA

Born: 1884 (St. Louis, Missouri)

Died: 1953 (St. Louis, Missouri)

Preston J. Bradshaw was one of the most eminent architects of St. Louis, Missouri, during the 1920s.

Bradshaw graduated from Columbia University. This was followed by a period working in the office of architect Stanford White in New York City, after which he was a drafter for the Commissioner of Public Buildings of St. Louis.

Among his numerous commissions as an architect, he is best known for designing hotels and automobile dealerships in the region. Like many hotel architects of his time, he eventually moved into the actual operation of hotels, becoming owner and operator of the Coronado Hotel in St. Louis.

Information in part sourced from Wikipedia .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Granada Theatre, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

Born: 1885

Died: 1958

Murray Brown was a Canadian architect based in Toronto.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Capitol Theatre, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Bucknall and Jennings were a Swansea-based architect firm. They designed the Patti Theatre at Craig-y-nos for Victorian opera diva Dame Adelina Patti, and the Pavilion Theatre in Swansea.

Theatres on this website in which this architect firm was involved:

Adelina Patti Theatre, Craig-y-nos, Wales, UK

Born: 1892

Died: 1956

Bushnell was an architect and city engineer based in Whittier, California, noted for designing the Whittier Theatre, the Wardman Theater, the Goodyear Building, and the Hoover Hotel, all located in Whittier.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Whittier Theatre, Whittier, California, USA

Born: 1884 (Constantine, Michigan)

Died: 1956 (Abilene, Texas)

David S. Castle was an architect in Texas who moved to the city of Abilene in 1914.

Castle’s firm has been assessed to be Abilene’s “most successful architect”, and a number of his works are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. He designed numerous buildings throughout the state including civic, religious, and official structures.

Castle’s architectural and engineering firm, D.S. Castle, Inc., is especially recognized for its superb hotel designs. Four of the architect’s and firm’s hotels were built in Abilene.

Castle was joined in business by his son, architect David S. Castle, Jr. after World War II and until Mr. Castle, Sr.’s death in 1956.

Information in part sourced from Wikipedia .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Paramount Theatre, Abilene, Texas, USA

Chapman and Oxley was a Toronto-based architectural firm founded in 1919 by architects Alfred H. Chapman (1875-1949) and James M. Oxley (1883-1957).

The firm was responsible for designing a number of prominent buildings in the city in the 1920s and 1930s. Even with the departure of Chapman as a partner, the firm’s last projects appeared to be in the late 1940s.

Theatres on this website in which this architect firm was involved:

Runnymede Theatre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Born: 1880 (Bristol, England)

Died: 1958 (Johannesburg, South Africa)

Cooke was born in Bristol, England, on 26th March 1880. He was educated in Bristol and Sheffield before attending the Crystal Palace School of Engineering and Training.

Not long after the turn of the century, Cooke moved to South Africa and was employed as an engineering assistant by the Town Engineer in Johannesburg. He opened his own practice in 1910, based in Germiston.

In 1917 Cooke was appointed representative of the Association of Transvaal Architects Practice Committee in Germiston and moved to Johannesburg in 1920.

Cooke was later appointed architect to the African Consolidated Theatres, and in 1927 was sent to Europe and to the United States of America to investigate modern theatre design. In New York he met Thomas Lamb who taught Cooke “the secrets of atmospheric theatre with an illusion of sky and stars”. Cooke stated that he designed the Alhambra Theatre in Cape Town in Lamb’s office. Cooke also designed the Colosseum Theatre in Johannesburg.

After the death of his first wife, Cooke married Mabel (nee Cecil) in February 1942, and in October 1944 had a daughter Gillian, Cooke’s only child. Cooke’s second wife died in June 1950 and he looked after his daughter until his own death in 1958.

Information in part sourced from Artefacts .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Capitol Theatre, Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa

Colosseum Theatre, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa

Born: 1885 (Connecticut)

Died: 1952 (London, UK)

Crane specialized largely in theatre and auditorium design and became a leading designer in the 1920s.

Crane opened an architectural practice in Detroit, MI, developing a specialty in the design of movie theatres. He has been credited with designing over 200 theatres, with about 25% of them located in the Detroit metropolitan area. He was practicing in 1919 (perhaps earlier) in the Dime Bank Building, Detroit.

Around 1932, Crane moved to England, but retained an office in Detroit. Before World War II, Crane designed theatres in the UK such as the Earl’s Court Arena in London (seating 30,000 and one of his largest works). During the war Crane designed munitions plants for the British military.

In 1951, Crane supervised studio construction for 20th Century Fox. He died at his residence in London at the age of 67.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

The United Theater on Broadway, Los Angeles, California, USA

(theatre)

Warner Theatre, Washington D.C., District of Colombia, USA

Born: 1848 (Airdrie, Scotland)

Died: 1923 (Glasgow, Scotland)

James Davidson was born in Airdrie in 1848, the son of a weaver. He was educated at Airdrie Academy and initially trained as a joiner. In his teens he moved to Glasgow to attend the classes in the Athenaeum in Ingram Street, and while acting as foreman joiner on Flowerhill Parish Church in 1875 he impressed sufficiently to be made master or works for other Baird Trust church building projects. This enabled him to be articled to Hugh Hough MacLure from 1875 to 1882 when he commenced practice on his own account in Coatbridge, immediately becoming architect to Coatbridge School Board and a prominent local mason achieving the position of master of St John’s Lodge within a very few years. He was elected a councilor in Coatbridge in 1889, became a Baillie, and by 1911 provost.

Davidson was elected FRIBA on 3 December 1906, his proposers being James Milne Monro, Alexander Cullen and Davis Barclay. He was a very competent free Renaissance designer and a specialist in the design and construction of theatres.

Davidson died in April 1923. The practice was continued by his son Alexander, born 1879, who was articled to him and studied at Coatbridge Technical school from 1894 to 1899 and at Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College from 1899 to 1902. He became his father’s partner in August 1908 and was elected LRIBA in the mass intake of 20 July 1911, his proposers being his father, David Bateman Hutton and James Campbell Reid.

The practice name became James Davidson & Partners in the 1940s. In 1949 Alexander Smart Todd was taken into partnership. In 1953 on the death of the practice George Bruce Scotland, the practice J Scotland & Sons which was based in Airdrie was taken over by James Davidson & Son. The office in Airdrie was maintained until 1978. In 1960 Robert Robertson was taken into partnership and Robert William Marwick in 1966. At some point prior to 1957 the name of the practice changed again, this time becoming James Davidson & Son.

Information in part sourced from the Dictionary of Scottish Architects .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

(exterior)

Died: 1936 (Blackpool, UK)

John Christopher Derham was based in Blackpool and was responsible for designing the 1930s-era additions to the Blackpool Winter Gardens, where he was appointed Chief Architect: Olympia Hall (1930); and the Baronial Hall, the Galleon Bar, the Renaissance Restaurant, the Windsor Bar, and the Spanish Congress Hall (all completed in 1931). Derham worked with French-born British art director Andrew Mazzei on the projects.

Derham passed away in 1936, having taken on junior partner Charles Hamilton MacKeith in 1932 and operating as Derham, MacKeith & Partners until the year of his death. MacKeith carried-on the practice.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Spanish Hall, Blackpool Winter Gardens, England, UK

(architect)

Born: 1885 (Fort Collins, Colorado)

Died: 1967 (Trinidad, Colorado)

Desjardins spent his childhood in Denver and studied architecture at Cornell University. He subsequently taught architecture at the Denver School of Technology, worked for architects in New York City and abroad, and opened a Denver consulting service for local architects.

In 1910, Desjardins became the first architect in Colorado to be licensed through examination. He scored the highest average after three days of testing and was awarded License Number One.

Desjardins was a Fellow in the International Congress of Master Architects and was an organizer of the Independent Architects Association, Inc. (IAA).

Desjardins formed a short-lived partnership with Francis W. Cooper from 1922 to 1924 with offices in Denver and Pueblo. He left Denver in 1931 and practiced in Enid, Oklahoma, for several years. In 1935, he settled in Trinidad, Colorado, establishing a permanent home in 1938 where he spent the remainder of his life.

Information in part sourced from History Colorado .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Oriental Theater, Denver, Colorado, USA

Born: 1886 (St. Louis, Missouri)

Died: 1937 (Dallas, Texas)

Dunne was born in St. Louis and attended Washington University where he received his architecture degree. Dunne moved to Texas in 1917, taking up a job as an instructor at Texas A&M. Later, he joined architectural firm A.C. Finn in Houston, as a partner from 1922 – 1923. In 1924, Dunne started his own firm and served as architect for R&R Theaters during this time.

Dunne was well known for his movie theatre designs which included Texas theatres the Plaza in El Paso, the Ritz in Corpus Christie, the Texas in Seguin, the Texas in Palestine, the Paramount in Amarillo and theaters in Beaumont, Sherman, McAlester, Coleman, Big Spring, Del Rio and San Angelo.

Dunne was a member of the Dallas chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the Dallas Art Association, Knights of Columbus, and the Catholic Church. He died on October 19, 1937 at the age of 50.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Arcadia Theatre, Dallas, Texas, USA

Ritz Theatre, Corpus Christi, Texas, USA

Stateside at the Paramount, Austin, Texas, USA

Texas Theatre, San Angelo, Texas, USA

Born: 1875 (Chernivtsi, Ukraine)

Died: 1954 (Stamford, Connecticut)

John Eberson was born in January 1875 to Austro-Hungarian parents in Chernivtsi, in what is modern-day Western Ukraine. He schooled in Dresden in Germany and then studied electrical engineering at the University of Vienna.

Having spent 25 years in various parts of Europe, Eberson immigrated to the United States in 1901 and settled in St Louis where he apprenticed with Johnson Realty and Construction Company, a theatre architecture and construction company headed by theatrical designer and builder George Johnson. Eberson and Johnson traveled around the eastern part of America, promoting opera houses in small towns. Once the town was persuaded to build an opera house, Eberson would design it and Johnson would build it.

Eberson married Beatrice (Beatty) Lamb – an interior decorator – in Muscatine, Iowa, in February 1903.

In 1908 Eberson began his own practice in Hamilton, Ohio, where he received a number of commissions including the Jewel Theatre in Hamilton, Ohio.

In 1910 Eberson, by then with children, moved to Chicago. From there he increased his theatrical commissions including several for the Interstate Amusement Company run by Karl Hoblitzelle.

Eberson borrowed from his time spent in various European cities to inform his “continental” theatre designs which were not only popular, but found to be agreeable for staging both live vaudeville acts and screening silent movies with live accompaniment. A good extant example is the Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas, which first opened in 1915 as the Austin Majestic Theatre.

In later years Eberson became synonymous with the atmospheric theatre style, with many crediting the popularity of the style throughout the 1920s to his elaborate designs. Eberson declared the Majestic Theatre in Houston, Texas (completed in 1923) as his first atmospheric theatre, however we can see in his works between the Austin Majestic (now Paramount) and the Houston Majestic that Eberson was experimenting with designs which ultimately led to the atmospheric theatre concept.

In 1926, at the opening of the Tampa Theatre in Florida, Eberson stated “My idea for the atmospheric theater was born in Florida. I saw the value of putting nature to work and so have borrowed the color and design that are found in the flowers and the trees. The inhabitants of Spain and southern Italy live under the sun and enjoy the happiness nature affords them. So I decided their architecture probably would provide the firm foundation for a theater.”

Eberson also devised a business model which saw his own studio, staffed with dedicated master plasterers, create statuary, moldings, and architectural components which he would then re-use across multiple theatres, rearranging the separate elements into different settings, thereby reducing the cost of building a theatre simply through the economics of reuse.

The model also meant that Eberson could control the quality of product from start to finish by using his own master plasterers. Construction on-site was simplified and therefore costs reduced because ready-made statues and architectural elements arrived in crated packages and just needed assembled on-site by Eberson’s traveling construction team, and then painted.

Eberson moved to New York in 1926. In 1929 his Chicago office was closed and all work was consolidated in the New York office. Around this time Eberson’s son Drew was formally brought into the business as a partner.

Eberson’s last atmospheric was arguably his best: the Majestic Theatre in San Antonio, Texas, designed for Karl Hoblitzelle’s Interstate Amusement Company and completed with a penthouse apartment on the top of the building designed specifically for Mr Hoblitzelle.

In March 1954 Eberson died after a long illness at the age of 79 in Stamford, Connecticut, and was buried at Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum in Hartsdale, New York.

You can read more about John Eberson and his legacy on our Theatre Legends and Showpeople page here.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Akron Civic Theatre, Ohio, USA

Ambassador’s Theatre, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

(original designs)

Annex Theatre, Detroit, Michigan, USA

Avalon Regal Theater, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Canton Palace Theatre, Ohio, USA

Capitol Theatre, Flint, Michigan, USA

Capitol Theatre, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Indiana Theatre Event Center, Terre Haute, Indiana, USA

John P. Harris Memorial Theatre, McKeesport, Pennsylvania, USA

Majestic Theatre, Houston, Texas, USA

Majestic Theatre, San Antonio, Texas, USA

Majestic Theatre, Dallas, Texas, USA

National Theatre, Washington D.C., District of Colombia, USA

(1948 remodel, in conjunction with son Drew Eberson)

Orpheum Theatre, Wichita, Kansas, USA

Palace Theatre, Marion, Ohio, USA

Palace Theatre, Gary, Indiana, USA

Paradise Theater, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Paramount Theatre, Austin, Texas, USA

Ritz Theatre, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA

Riviera Theatre, Detroit, Michigan, USA

Tampa Theatre, Florida, USA

Born: 1863 (Los Angeles, California)

Died: 1941 (Los Angeles, California)

Edelman was the son of Abram Wolf Edelman, a migrant from Poland and the first rabbi of Los Angeles’ Congregation B’nai B’rith from 1862. He apprenticed with a San Francisco-based architect firm before returning to Los Angeles around 1884.

Edelman began his own practice in Los Angeles in the mid-1880s. He became a member of the Southern California Chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 1902 and remained a member until 1941. Edelman was a Past-President of the State Association of Architects, Southern Branch, and was active on the State Board of Architectural Examiners.

Abram M. Edelman had been referred to in a number of sources as “Abraham M. Edelman” and “A.M. Edelman”.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Shrine Auditorium, California, USA

(assisting)

Ellerbe & Company was founded in 1909 by Franklin Ellerbe and, upon his death in 1921, was taken over by his son Thomas F. Ellerbe who, as lead architect, expanded the firm into the largest in Minnesota.

Thomas Ellerbe was an avid supporter of co-ops and eventually converted his firm into an employee-owned organization, which it remained until merging with Welton Becket and Associates (designers of Pacific’s Cinerama Dome in Hollywood and the Los Angeles Music Center) in 1987. The successor firm, Ellerbe Becket, remains in operation today.

Theatres on this website in which this architect firm was involved:

Paramount Theatre, Austin, Minnesota, USA

In 1988, Welton Becket Associates joined with Ellerbe Associates of Minneapolis, to form Ellerbe Becket.

Franklin Ellerbe had founded the firm in 1909. At this merger, Ellerbe took control of Becket, and the headquarters moved to Minneapolis.

Ellerbe Becket’s initial six offices were located in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, DC, Chicago, IL, and Tampa, FL.

Theatres on this website in which this architect firm was involved:

Chateau Theatre, Rochester, Minnesota, USA

Los Angeles Music Center, California, USA

(Ahmanson Theatre 1990s redesign)

Born: 1864 (Gray's Summit, Illinois)

Died: 1938 (Denver, Colorado)

Montana Fallis was born in 1864 in Gray’s Summit, Illinois, and studied architecture at Illinois College in Jacksonville, Illinois. He graduated with honors in 1886, moved to Denver, and entered the architectural firm of Frank Edbrooke, one of the foremost Denver architects of the late 19th century. Fallis worked as a construction engineer for Edbrooke’s larger building projects.

In 1898, Fallis left Edbrooke to become the Chief Construction Engineer for the American Smelting Company. During this time he invented a safety device for measuring drafts in smelting flues called the “Fallis Manometer”.

In 1905, Fallis joined with John Stein to form the Denver architectural firm of Fallis and Stein. One of the most notable works of the partnership was the original Ideal Building. This structure was billed as the first fireproof high-rise building in the West. In 1910 Fallis left Stein and formed the firm of Willison and Fallis with former City Building Inspector, Robert Willison.

Fallis formed his own architectural firm in 1914. In the 1920s, he designed the two buildings on which his fame today is substantially based, the Buerger Brothers Building and the Mayan Theater, both begun in 1929 and both completed in 1930. Many consider the Mayan Theatre to be an Art Deco masterpiece. The Buerger Brothers Building is closely associated with the Mayan Theatre in terms of its style, and in the lavish and extensive use of glazed terra cotta.

Montana Fallis died after a long illness in 1938.

Information in part sourced from History Colorado .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Mayan Theatre, Denver, Colorado, USA

Based in the UK, Foster designed around 20 cinemas in the early 20th century for the Associated British Cinemas (ABC) theatre chain, including the ABC Blackpool, ABC Wimbledon, Cannon Sheffield, and the O₂ ABC Glasgow.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Cannon Golders Green, London, England, UK

(1957 modernization)

Cinemax Cinema, Edgware, England, UK

(1962 modernization)

Frankel & Curtis was an architectural firm based in Lexington, Kentucky. It was a partnership of Leon K. Frankel and of John J. Curtis, along with associates James Slaughter Frankel and Melbourne Mills.

A successor name is Frankel, Curtis & Coleman. Under this name, the firm received a 1963 American Institute of Architects Kentucky award, its Honor Award merit prize, for its Admin. Bldg., of the Spindletop Research Center, in Lexington, Kentucky.

Information sourced from Wikipedia .

Theatres on this website in which this architect firm was involved:

Russell Theatre, Maysville, Kentucky, USA

(building)

Born: Brisbane, Australia

Gailey was the son of celebrated architect Richard Gailey (1834 - 1924). Richard Gailey, Snr., emigrated to Australia from Ireland at the age of 30 in 1864, settling in Brisbane. Richard Gailey, Jr., one of three sons, became his right-hand man at his architectural practice and went on to become a respected architect in his own right.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Plaza Theatre, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Born: 1884 (Gloucestershire, UK)

Died: 1944 (Glasgow, UK)

Albert Victor Gardner was born in Gloucestershire at the beginning of 1884, the son of Newton Gardner and Susannah Britter. The family moved around however settled in Glasgow by 1901.

Gardner studied at the Glasgow School of Art from 1901 to 1905, then commenced independent practice in 1908 at an office in Glasgow.

Throughout his career Gardner specialized in cinema design, his main client in the early years being the English entrepreneur Frederick Rendelle Burnett. His reputation quickly attracted others in the cinema industry, notably the James Graham Circuit. Although inexpensively built, Gardner’s early cinemas showed considerable originality.

The most notable of Gardner’s pre-War World I cinemas was the Pavilion Picture House, Motherwell, of 1913, built on a prominent corner site. Its façade was an impressive tribute to the entrance hall of Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1900 Susan Lawrence Dana House in Springfield Illinois, rising into an asymmetrically placed advertising tower of finned brickwork and glass. The Queen’s Park Picture House Glasgow (1916) similarly featured Wright-inspired motifs, as did the Springburn Picture House, the Possilpark Picture Theatre, and the Alex Picture House in Paisley, all built between 1919 and 1924.

After the First World War Gardner entered into partnership with William Riddell Glen. The practice, Gardner & Glen, had offices at 164 Bath Street in Glasgow, and specialized in the design of “atmospheric” cinemas. The partnership was dissolved in 1929 when Glen left for London having obtained an appointment as Architect to Associated British Cinemas Ltd.

Gardner’s practice was unaffected by Glen’s departure, and he received commissions for new cinemas and the refurbishment and enlargement of existing ones. He took a financial interest in at least two new cinemas: the Kelvin Cinema in Glasgow and the Orient Kinema also in Glasgow, where he was a director. These two large cinemas, like the majority of those designed by Gardner in the 1930s, featured auditoria lavishly decorated in the Atmospheric manner.

In 1936 Gardner went into partnership with Gavin Thomson, all his work thereafter being credited to Gardner & Thomson.

Gardner died of cirrhosis of the liver on 7th June 1944. He was buried at Hillfoot Cemetery in Bearsden.

Information in part sourced from the Dictionary of Scottish Architects .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Campbeltown Picture House, Campbeltown, Scotland, UK

Born: 1929 (Toronto, Canada)

Frank Owen Gehry, CC, FAIA is a Canadian-born American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence, have become world-renowned attractions. His works are cited as being among the most important works of contemporary architecture in the 2010 World Architecture Survey, which led Vanity Fair to label him as “the most important architect of our age”.

Gehry’s best-known works include the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain; Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles; Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, France; MIT Ray and Maria Stata Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts; the Vontz Center for Molecular Studies on the University of Cincinnati campus; Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle; New World Center in Miami Beach; Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis; Dancing House in Prague; the Vitra Design Museum and the MARTa Herford museum in Germany; the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto; the Cinémathèque Française in Paris; and 8 Spruce Street in New York City.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Los Angeles Music Center, California, USA

(Disney Concert Hall)

Born: 1892 (Illinois)

Died: 1832 (Laguna Hills, CA)

Archibald Dwight Gibbs was born 26th April 1892 in Illinois.

Gibbs was an associate architect with Elmer Grey on the Pasadena Community Playhouse, and was responsible for the interior decoration.

Gibbs would go on to design the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles, opened May 1926 and demolished in 1969.

Dwight passed away at the age of 91 in Laguna Hills, California.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Pasadena Playhouse, California, USA

(architect for interior decoration)

Born: 1855 (Utica, New York)

Died: 1950 (Buffalo, New York)

Very often referred to as E.B. Green, Edward Broadhead Green was a major American architect from New York State.

After graduating from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, Green worked as a junior architect with William Miller in Ithaca for three years while teaching at Cornell for one year. In 1880, along with William Sydney Wicks, an M.I.T. architecture graduate, he opened a practice in Auburn, New York, moving a year later to Buffalo, New York.

Green was active in Buffalo, New York through about 1930 where his work left a lasting impression on the city of Buffalo. His public buildings include the Buffalo Savings Bank, the Market Arcade, the Buffalo Crematory, and South Park High School, The First Presbyterian Church of Buffalo, Kibler High School, Tonawanda Municipal Building, and Dayton Art Institute (1930) among others.

He also designed and built many private residences, including the Charles W. Goodyear Residence, the Granger Mansion, and his own residence. During his 72-year career, Green designed more than 370 major structures. More than 160 of his Buffalo buildings survive today.

After the death of his partner Wicks in 1919, Green continued the practice with his son, Edward B. Green Jr., and then with R.M. James from 1936 to 1950.

Information in part sourced from Wikipedia .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Peristyle Theater, Toledo, Ohio, USA

Born: 1871 (Chicago, Illinois)

Died: 1963 (Pasadena, California)

Elmer Grey was born in Chicago on 30th April 1871 (incorrectly listed by some sources as 29th April 1872) and moved at an early age with his family to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he attended school. Grey then apprenticed with and later worked for Gerry and Clas architects in Milwaukee from 1887 to 1899.

Grey formed a partnership with Myron Hunt based in Pasadena, California, which lasted from 1903 to 1908. Hunt and Grey developed a notable reputation for their designs in Southern California.

Grey moved to Pasadena, California, in either 1906 or 1907, and would stay there for most of the remainder of his life (he moved his practice to Florida in 1941 but returned to California some time before 1953).

In the Los Angeles area Grey is best known for his designs of the Pasadena Community Playhouse (in association with Dwight Gibbs), the Beverly Hills Hotel, the Huntington Library, the Lincoln Memorial Shrine in Redlands, and the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) campus in Pasadena.

In addition to his skills as an architect, Grey was also a notable painter, well-known for his landscape renderings as well as an illustrator.

Grey passed away at the age in 92 on 14th November 1963.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Pasadena Playhouse, California, USA

Hawes was primarily based in Los Angeles where he designed the UCLAN Theatre, later known as the Crest Westwood.

In the 1920s Hawes designed the Temple of Art and Music in Tucson, Arizona, which was a close carbon copy of the Pasadena Community Playhouse. Newspapers reported that Hawes had worked in association with architect Elmer Grey on the playhouse, and the designs for the Tucson theatre were developed at Grey’s offices in Los Angeles.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Nimoy Theater, Los Angeles, California, USA

Born: 1892 (Leominster, Massachusetts)

Died: 1983 (Fitchburg, Massachusetts)

After attending school in Leominster, Stephen Wesley Haynes moved to Boston to continue his education. He worked as a draftsman for Peabody & Stearns, Allen & Collens, and other firms. In 1918 Haynes returned to Leominster to open his own architectural firm, moving it to Fitchburg in 1920.

In 1921, Haynes and Harold E. Mason formed a partnership called Haynes & Mason. By 1932 Mason was working semi-independently from an office in Leominster, and in 1933 they split completely. Haynes then established the firm of S.W. Haynes & Associates, which remained active until 1962.

In the mid-to-late 1930s Haynes designed the Latchis Hotel and Theatre Building in Brattleboro, Vermont, one of his few Art Deco designs and one of purportedly only two Art Deco buildings in the state of Vermont.

Haynes died in 1983 however his firm remains active, albeit relocated to Ashby, MA.

Haynes designed buildings in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Connecticut, several of which have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Information in part sourced from Wikipedia .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Latchis Theatre, Brattleboro, Vermont, USA

Born: 1879 (Ghent, Belgium)

Died: 1957 (Ghent, Belgium)

Georgius J. Henderick was an architect from Ghent in Belgium, particularly active in the period before and after the First World War. Henderick was noted for his fusion of differing styles including art nouveau and art deco.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Cine Rex, Ghent, East Flanders, Belgium

Leslie S. Hodgson was born in December 1879 and Myrl A. McClenahan was born in January 1891.

Hodgson studied with several architects, including Frank Lloyd Wright. He moved to Ogden in 1906, and in 1919 partnered with Myrl A. McClenahan. Their partnership lasted into the late 1930s, and the firm was responsible for many of Ogden’s largest and most significant buildings.

McClenahan died in 1940 and Hodgson died in July 1947.

Theatres on this website in which this architect firm was involved:

Peery’s Egyptian Theater, Ogden, Utah, USA

Born: 1881 (Arnhem, Netherlands)

Died: 1949 (Lima, Ohio)

Peter Hulsken was born in Arnhem, Netherlands, in 1881 and attended the Royal Academy, Amsterdam, Netherlands, and later graduated from the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, France. When he was 24 years of age, Hulsken moved to the United States and worked in the offices of the late Albert Kahn, Detroit. He became a citizen in 1915.

Hulsken was in the architectural profession in Lima, Ohio, for 40 years. His associate, Robert A. Helser, and Mr. Hulsken designed the new Elks lodge in Lima, the Elks home in Bexley, W. Va., and telephone buildings at Delphos, Ottawa, Shelby, Bucyrus and Mt. Vernon. The firm was the associate architects on the new Lima Greyhound bus terminal.

He formerly was co-partner in the Hulsken-Lyman T. Strong firm for 22 years. The organization drafted plans for Coldwater high school, Celina court house, Ohio Power Co. in Lima, Ohio theatre in Lima, theatres in Kenton, Bellefontaine, Wooster, Sandusky and in New York and West Virginia for the Schines Theatrical Co., Inc., and the First National Bank in Findlay.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Holland Theatre, Bellefontaine, Ohio, USA

The architectural partnership between Sumner P. Hunt and Silas Reese Burns was active mostly in California from 1910 to 1930. After Hunt retired in 1930, Burns continued to practice for 8 years.

In the Los Angeles area, Hunt and Burns were known for the Ebell of Los Angeles clubhouse and theatre, the Automobile Club of Southern California Headquarters in Exposition Park, the Southwest Museum in Mount Washington, and the clubhouse of the Los Angeles Country Club.

Sumner P. Hunt was born in Brooklyn (New York) on 8th May 1865 and was an architect based in Los Angeles from 1888 to 1930. In 1891, when Hunt established his own practice, he was hired to design the Bradbury Building in downtown Los Angeles. Lewis Bradbury terminated Hunt’s services at the design phase, and in February 1892 took possession of Hunt’s plans for the building. It is unknown what alterations were made, if any, to the building as completed in 1893. Hunt passed away in November 1938 aged 73.

Silas Reese Burns was born on 8th April 1855 in Morgantown (West Virginia) and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1875. Burns was active for many years in partnership with many architects, and collaborated on prolific buildings such as the Hotel Maryland in Pasadena (California), the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, branches of the Los Angeles Public Library, the Wilshire Country Club, the Ebell Club of Pomona, and Balch Hall on the campus of Scripps College in Claremont (California). Burns passed away in August 1930 aged 85.

Theatres on this website in which this architect firm was involved:

Wilshire Ebell Theatre, California, USA

Died: 1967 (Keighley, UK)

William Beresford Inglis was a Scottish architect who studied at the Glasgow School of Art from 1903 to 1905. He went on to become a cinema specialist and owner of cinemas and hotels in Glasgow and the west of Scotland. He also designed various public houses, houses and industrial buildings.

Inglis’ office was in Blythswood Square in Glasgow, near his most important work: the Beresford Hotel on Sauchiehall Street (restored in 2003 as residential apartments).

In 1932 Inglis merged his practice with that of James Wilkie Weddell, the newly formed partnership being based at 216 Bath Street which Inglis had occupied since 1926. At the time of the merger, Inglis was the owner of North British Theatres Ltd, formed to build the Andalusian atmospheric Boulevard Cinema (later renamed Vogue) in Knightswood. Inglis ran it himself and booked his own films.

Immediately after the formation of the partnership to build the Boulevard, Inglis promoted a second company – the Toledo Picture House Company – to build another atmospheric cinema, the Toledo in Muirend. The company ran into financial difficulties and both cinema and company were sold to ABC a year later.

Inglis also built the Hippodrome in Oatlands and the Arcadia in Bridgeton.

Inglis died in 1967 in Keighley, Yorkshire. He was survived by his third wife. His first wife died on Arran during a family holiday, and his second wife divorced him and emigrated to New Zealand with the couple’s two daughters.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Boulevard Picture House, Glasgow, Scotland, UK

Ritz Cinema, Cambuslang, Scotland, UK

Toledo Theatre, Glasgow, Scotland, UK

Born: 1838 (Somerset, England)

Died: 1905 (Bradford, England)

Sir Henry Irving was a well-known English actor-manager of the Victorian era.

Irving managed the Lyceum Theatre in London in partnership with actress Ellen Terry, in what may have been more than a purely professional arrangement at times.

The Exeter Theatre Royal fire of 1887 caused Irving to become interested in ensuring better safety for theatres and led to him developing the “Irving Safety Theatre” principles, whose general rules still hold true today such as dividing the auditorium from the back-of-house and ensuring multiple exits for every section of the audience.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Adelina Patti Theatre, Craig-y-nos, Wales, UK

(consultant)

Born: 1888 (California)

Died: 1931 (San Francisco, CA)

Creston H. Jensen was born in California in 1888. He was an alumnus of UC Berkeley, and earned his architectural certificate from the state of California in 1919. Jensen was Reid Brothers’ chief draftsman for several years, prior to striking off on his own in 1921.

During the next twelve years, Jensen concentrated his architectural practice in the San Francisco Bay Area. He specialized in ecclesiastical work, and prepared many plans for the Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Francisco. The Archbishop adopted these plans for structures that were erected in Salinas, Alameda, Mountain View, and San Jose.

In addition to his church designs, Jensen also worked on various community and commercial projects in Northern California. The most notable of these works include the Elks Club Gymnasium of Santa Cruz (1927), the Masonic Association’s Corinthian Hall in South San Francisco (1927), and the Daly City Theatre (1928). At the time of his death in 1931, Jensen’s office was located at 605 Market Street.

The University of California at Berkeley’s  Environmental Design Archives  houses a collection of Jensen’s papers.

Information sourced from the Online Archive of California .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Daly City Theatre, Daly City, California, USA

Born: 1875 (Edinburgh)

Died: 1947 (Edinburgh)

John Jerdan was born in 1875, the son of architect James Jerdan and Helen Watson, Edinburgh.

Jerdan was educated at the Edinburgh Institution from 1888-1889 and articled to his father. During that period he attended the classes at Heriot-Watt University, where his father taught architecture and building construction. He also attended the Trustees classes at the Royal Scottish Academy.

Jerdan was admitted to the Royal Institute of British Architects in July 1911 and became a member of the Edinburgh Architectural Association that year, later serving on its Council.

Jerdan died of bronchitis in March 1947. His wife had predeceased him on Christmas day 1945.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

New Victoria Cinema, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

(assisting)

Jorgensen was active on the US West Coast and is best known for designing the Rivoli Theatre in Berkeley, California. Other theatres in California he is reported to have designed include the Del Mar Theater and Rialto Theatre in San Francisco, and the Parkway Theater and Gateway Theatre in Oakland.

Jorgensen was married in 1925 and served as the President of the San Francisco Architectural Club during the 1920s.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Parkway Theater, Oakland, California, USA

Born: 1893 (Carrizo Springs, Texas)

Died: 1932 (San Antonio, Texas)

Robert Bertram Kelly began his architectural career in 1912 as a draftsman for San Antonio architect H.A. Reuter. He moved to the A.A. Herff Company in 1914, returning briefly to Reuter’s firm in 1917.

After serving as Henry T. Phelps’s draftsman in 1918, Kelly entered into partnership with Harvey P. Smith in 1919, an association that lasted until circa 1922.

Around 1923, Kelly and partners Arthur A. Seeligson (attorney and financier) and builder H.C. Wood formed the Kelwood Company, a firm that both designed and built residential and commercial buildings.

The Kelwood Company was first listed in the 1926 San Antonio City Directory (there are no directories for 1923-25), advertising their work in architecture, construction, and financing. Seeligson served as president, Kelly as vice president, and Wood as secretary/treasurer. The firm appears to have functioned until 1930, perhaps impacted by the Depression.

Kelly practiced alone in 1931, and in 1932, he committed suicide.

Information in part sourced from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Aztec Theatre, San Antonio, Texas, USA

UK-based King designed and operated theatres which became part of the Associated British Cinemas (ABC) theatre chain, later Cannon. Cinemas include the ABC Southgate, Cannon Golders Green, and the Ritz Cinema in Potters Bar.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Cannon Golders Green, London, England, UK

Cinemax Cinema, Edgware, England, UK

Born: 1874 (Detroit, Michigan)

Died: 1957 (Peoria, Illinois)

Architect Frederic Klein was born in 1874 in Detroit, Michigan, and moved to Peoria as a child with his parents. A self-taught architect, he learned the profession in the offices of local architects Richardson & Salter, Reeves & Baillie and Herbert Hewitt.

Klein started his own architectural office in 1903 to coincide with the publication of his book, The House Book, featuring 100 designs and plans for homes. He practiced in Peoria from 1903 until his death in 1957 and designed buildings throughout central Illinois.

Some of Klein’s most notable buildings in Peoria include Peoria High School, Franklin School, the Packard Plaza building, and the pavilions at Grand View and Trewyn parks.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Barrymore Theatre, Madison, Wisconsin, USA

Coronado Performing Arts Center, Rockford, Illinois, USA

Born: 1859 (Thorn, Germany)

Died: 1935 (Chicago, Illinois)

Edmund R. Krause was born in Thorn, Germany, on 15th August 1859, the son of William and Wilhelmina Krause. He studied architecture in Germany and came to the United States in 1880 at the age of 21.

Krause began his architectural practice in Chicago in 1885 at the age of 25 or 26. For a brief time, he was in partnership with Frederick W. Perkins but, for most of his working years, he was a sole practitioner.

The American Contractor database (1898-1912) shows that Krause designed 61 buildings. Of these, 25 were for either E.J. Lehman, the estate of E.J. Lehman or another Lehman family member. It is a great example of the importance of a major client to an architect. Another major client was the Fair Department Store. Krause designed six buildings for them – mainly warehouses or delivery stations – between 1904 and 1909. Krause designed the 20-story Majestic Building in downtown Chicago, housing the Majestic Theatre, in 1905-06.

Edmund R. Krause died on 2ns July 1935 at the age of 76.

Information in part sourced from the Edgewater Historical Society .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

CIBC Theatre, Chicago, Illinois, USA

(surrounding building)

Krokyn and Browne was the partnership of Jacob Frederick Krokyn and Ambrose Amarie Browne, formed in about 1921. From about 1925 through 1929, Arthur Rosenstein also was a partner, and the firm was known as Krokyn, Browne & Rosenstein. By 1930, Arthur Rosenstein no longer was a named partner in the firm, but he continued as a member of firm.

Krokyn and Browne continued until about 1957. Thereafter, J. Frederick Krokyn went into partnership with his son, William, forming the firm of Krokyn and Krokyn, and Ambrose Browne went into practice with his son, W. Chester Browne.

Krokyn and Browne was known primarily for its public and commercial buildings, including several movie theatres throughout New England.

Information in part sourced from Back Bay Houses .

Theatres on this website in which this architect firm was involved:

Oriental Theatre, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Born: 1871 (Dundee, Scotland)

Died: 1942 (New York, New York)

Thomas Lamb was a Scottish-born American architect, noted as one of the foremost designers of theatres and cinemas in the 20th century.

Lamb was born in Dundee, Scotland and came to the United States at the age of 12. He studied architecture at Cooper Union in New York and initially worked for the City of New York as an inspector.

Lamb achieved recognition as one of the leading architects of the boom in movie theatre construction of the 1910s and 1920s. Particularly associated with Fox Theatres, Loew’s Theatres, and the Keith-Albee chains of vaudeville and film theatres, Lamb was instrumental in establishing and developing the design and construction of the large, lavishly decorated theatres, known as “movie palaces”, as showcases for the films from the emerging Hollywood studios.

Lamb’s designs for the 1914 Mark Strand Theatre, the 1916 Rialto Theatre, and the 1917 Rivoli Theatre, all in Times Square in New York City, set the template for what would become the American movie palace.

Among Lamb’s most notable theatres were the 1929 Fox Theatre in San Francisco and the 1919 Capitol Theatre in New York, both now demolished. Among his most noted designs that have been preserved and restored are the 1928 B.F. Keith Memorial Theatre in Boston (now the Boston Opera House), Warner’s Hollywood Theatre (1930) in New York (now the Times Square Church), the Hippodrome Theatre (1914) in Baltimore, and the Loew’s Ohio Theatre (1928) in Columbus, Ohio. Among Lamb’s existing Canadian theatres are the 1920 Pantages Theatre in Toronto (now the Ed Mirvish Theatre) and the double-decker Elgin and Winter Garden theatres.

Aside from movie theatres, Lamb is noted for designing (with Joseph Urban) New York’s Ziegfeld Theatre, a legitimate theatre, as well as the third Madison Square Garden and the Paramount Hotel in midtown Manhattan.

Lamb died in 1942 in New York City at the age of 71. His architectural archive is held by the Drawings and Archives Department of Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University.

Information in part sourced from Wikipedia .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center, Huntington, West Virginia, USA

Midland Theatre, Kansas City, Missouri, USA

Triboro Theatre, New York, New York, USA

Born: 1876 (Panama)

Died: 1969 (San Mateo, California)

Gustave Albert Lansburgh was an American architect largely known for his work on luxury cinemas and theatres.

Lansburgh was born in Panama and raised largely in San Francisco. After graduating from Boys High School in 1894, Lansburgh enrolled in the University of California, Berkeley. While a student there, he worked part-time in the offices of prominent San Francisco architect Bernard Maybeck. Upon graduation, he moved to Paris, where in 1901, he was enrolled in the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts, earning a diploma in March 1906.

Lansburgh returned to the Bay Area in May 1906, one month after the region had been devastated by the San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fires. First in partnership with Bernard Julius Joseph for two years, then in his own practice, Lansburgh designed numerous buildings in the recovering city, including his first theatre for the San Francisco–based Orpheum Theatre Circuit. In his long career thereafter, Lansburgh become known primarily as a theatre architect and is known to have designed more than 50 theatres over his career, many for the Orpheum Circuit and its successor firm, RKO.

Lansburgh collaborated with Los Angeles-based architects Abram M. Edelman and John C. Austin on the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, and with Arthur Brown Jr. on the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco. Although many of Lansburgh’s best-known works, including El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, were on the U.S. West Coast, his personal favorite was said to have been the Al Hirschfeld Theatre (originally the Martin Beck Theatre) in New York City.

The University of California at Berkeley’s  Environmental Design Archives  houses a collection of Lansburgh’s papers.

Information in part sourced from Wikipedia .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

El Capitan Theatre, Hollywood, California, USA

(theatre)

Orpheum Theatre, Los Angeles, California, USA

Palace Theatre, Los Angeles, California, USA

Shrine Auditorium, California, USA

(theatre)

The Wiltern, Koreatown, California, USA

(theatre)

Warner Hollywood, California, USA

Born: 1892 (Copenhagen, Denmark)

Died: 1950 (Webb City, Missouri)

Lawrence “Larry” Peter Larsen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, on May 25, 1892. He studied art at the the city’s Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts.

At age 10, Larsen’s family moved to the United States where they first settled in Hancock, Michigan for two years, before moving to Oshkosh, Wisconsin in 1904.

Larsen ran away to Chicago around 1910, where he studied by night and was employed as a scenic artist by day.

In 1913, Larsen married Marguerite Pottinger Muir. In 1915 they moved to New York.

In 1920, Larsen formed his own company: United Studios, Inc., “designing theatres from steel and stone to the finished product completely equipped ready to present entertainment and receive patronage”.

Larsen claimed to have built the first Atmospheric Theatre east of the Mississippi, erected in Worcester, Massachusetts, said to have been considered one of the outstanding showplaces of the East.

Larsen would go on to become extremely well-known as an architect and contractor, building more than 100 theatres across the United States. His last name was commonly mis-reported as “Larson”.

Larsen passed away, due to a cerebral hemorrhage, in 1950.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Kenosha Theatre, Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA

Meyer Theatre, Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA

Stefanie H. Weill Center for the Performing Arts, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, USA

Born: 1899 (Chicago, Illinois)

Died: 1990 (Los Angeles, California)

S. Charles Lee was born in Chicago, IL, in September 1899 as Simeon Charles Levi, son of Julius and Hattie Stiller Levi, German-Jewish immigrants. Lee graduated with Honors from Technical College, Chicago, IL, in 1920, and then from the Armour Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, in 1921.

Lee was a draftsman at prolific theatre architects Rapp and Rapp (Chicago, IL) in 1921 and was licensed by State of Illinois to practice architecture in 1922. Around the same time Lee moved to Los Angeles, CA, opening his own architectural practice there one year later.

Lee married Miriam (Midge) Zelda Aisenstein in 1927. He later married Hylda Moss, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1966.

In 1962 Lee founded the S. Charles Lee Foundation, and established the S. Charles Lee Chair, UCLA Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Los Angeles, CA, in 1986.

Included in the "International Exhibit of Contemporary Architects," staged by Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), London, UK, 1934; Lee received the Presidential Medal, Order of Vasco Nuñez Balboa, Panama’s highest order of merit in 1968. Lee was named the Panamanian Vice-Consul, Beverly Hills, CA, by President of Panama, 1963, and named Consul in Beverly Hills for Panama in 1974.

Lee’s papers are housed in the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Library, Department of Special Collections, Young Research Library, Collection #1384. According to its UCLA finding aid, the collection contained "...drawings, renderings, blueprints, photographs, and surveys relating to Lee’s professional career including his work as a developer and the most prolific architect of art deco movie palaces in Los Angeles."

Information in part sourced from the Pacific Coast Architecture Database .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Alex Theatre, Glendale, California, USA

(1940 additions)

Fox Theater Bakersfield, California, USA

(original design)

Los Angeles Theatre, California, USA

Saban Theatre, Beverly Hills, California, USA

Tower Theatre, Los Angeles, California, USA

Born: 1885 (Pennsylvania)

Died: 1962 (Los Angeles County)

Percy Parke Lewis (P.P. Lewis) was born in Pennsylvania in August 1885. Lewis married Ruth Augusta Lewis in Omaha, Nebraska in 1917.

During the height of his career Lewis was prolific in the Westwood area of Los Angeles’s westsde and designed more than 45 residences in Little Holmby.

Some of Lewis’s important commercial work includes St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, the Fox Westwood Theatre, and Desmond’s department store, all in Westwood Village on the westside of Los Angeles.

Lewis passed away in February 1962.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Regency’s Village Theatre, Westwood, California, USA

Liebenberg and Kaplan (L&K) was a Minneapolis architectural firm founded in 1923 by Jacob J. Liebenberg and Seeman I. Kaplan.

Over a period of 50 years, L&K became one of the Twin Cities’ most successful architectural firms, best known for designing/redesigning movie theatres. The firm also designed hospitals, places of worship, commercial and institutional buildings, country clubs, prestigious homes, radio and television stations, hotels, and apartment buildings.

After designing Temple Israel and the Granada Theater in Minneapolis, the firm began specializing in acoustics and theatre design and went on to plan the construction and/or renovation of more than 200 movie houses throughout Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Architectural records, original drawings, and plans for some 2,500 Liebenberg and Kaplan projects are available for public use at the Northwest Architectural Archives .

Information sourced in part from Wikipedia .

Theatres on this website in which this architect firm was involved:

Granada Theater, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Paradise Center for the Arts, Faribault, Minnesota, USA

Uptown Theatre, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA

(1929 remodel)

Born: 1879 (La Salle, Illinois)

Died: 1960 (Los Angeles, California)

Albert Carey Martin was an American architect and engineer. He founded the architectural firm of Albert C. Martin & Associates, now known as A.C. Martin Partners, and designed some of Southern California’s landmark buildings, including Los Angeles City Hall.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Million Dollar Theatre, Los Angeles, California, USA

(surrounding office building)

Born: 1880 (London, UK)

Died: 1960 (Wallington, UK)

Cecil Aubrey Masey was an English theatre and cinema architect, born 28th December 1880 in Lambeth, London. Masey was a pupil of Bertie Crewe, with whom he worked on the Empire Music Hall in Edmonton in 1908. In 1909, Masey went into partnership with architect Roy Young.

Some of Masey’s earliest designs include the New Wimbledon Theatre, built in 1919 with Roy Young in Wimbledon, London; and the Electric Theatre in Bournemouth, built in 1919 for Alexander Bernstein. In 1920 Masey also designed the Empire Cinema in Willesden for Bernstein.

Masey designed the Phoenix Theatre in London’s West End together with Giles Gilbert Scott and Bertie Crewe, which opened in 1930.

Masey died 7th April 1960.

Information in part sourced from Wikipedia .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Avenue Theatre, London, England, UK

Born: 1854 (Newton Abbot, UK)

Died: 1920 (Westcliff-on-Sea, UK)

Frank Matcham was born in Devon; the son of a brewery clerk. He was brought up in Torquay where he went to Babbacombe school. In 1868 he became apprenticed to George Bridgman, a local builder and architect.

In the mid 1870’s he moved to London to join the architectural practice of Jethro Robinson who was consulting theatre architect to the Lord Chamberlain. In 1877 Matcham married Robinson’s daughter and the following year when Robinson died suddenly, the 24 year old Matcham found himself taking over the practice.

Matcham’s first major job was to complete the Elephant and Castle Theatre which Robinson had started. Following this, Matcham went from success to success and over the next 30 years he became unrivalled as the most prolific theatre architect of all time.

It is impossible to be definitive as to his total output, but based upon research Matcham designed at least 80 theatres as the original architect, and refitted or worked on at least as many again. He also designed some pubs, cinemas, hotels and notably the County Arcade in Leeds, and the Tower Ballroom and Circus in Blackpool.

Sadly, only some two dozen of his theatres survive with a further dozen having been drastically altered as bingo halls, nightclubs, cinemas, and suchlike.

Matcham never qualified as an architect and was snubbed by many in his profession, but he became the supreme example of his craft. Despite his vast output each theatre was unique, and his ability to produce magnificent theatres on difficult sites speedily and economically led him to become highly respected by theatre owners and managers. He developed close relationships with several, especially Sir Oswald Stoll for whom he designed his supreme masterpiece the London Coliseum in 1904 as the flagship venue for Stoll’s chain of theatres and Music Halls.

Frank Matcham: Brunel of the stage, by Dea Birkett , is an excellent article published by The Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Information largely sourced from the Frank Matcham Society .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Bristol Hippodrome, England, UK

Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

(original theatre)

King’s Theatre, Glasgow, Scotland, UK

Richmond Theatre, London, England, UK

Born: 1887 (Havre, Frane)

Died: 1975 (Cornwall, UK)

Andrew Jean Louis Mazzei was born in France in 1887, the son of a plaster figure maker. Mazzei’s family moved to London when he was four. After a year-long trip to Italy when Mazzei was nine (Italy being his father’s home country), the family settled in Blackpool by 1901. It was during this time that Mazzei’s father contributed ornate plasterwork to the Tower Ballroom designed by architect Frank Matcham.

Mazzei married Alice Fairclough in 1912. They never had children. After the First World War, Mazzei worked for Messrs. J. Panichelli & Sons in Hammersmith (London), on architectural and plaster work until 1921 when he found employment with the film company Famous Players–Lasky British Producers Limited.

By the 1930s Mazzei was working for Gainsborough Pictures, including designing backdrops for the critically acclaimed thriller Rome Express (1932) .

In 1956 there was a devastating fire at the Tower Ballroom in Blackpool. Mazzei, who had worked in the ballroom as a boy and whose father executed some of the decorative plasterwork in 1901, spent weeks studying the ruined decorations and photographs of the building before the fire, and worked as a guide to the ballroom’s restoration.

Mazzei passed away on 6th August 1975 at the age of 88.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Spanish Hall, Blackpool Winter Gardens, England, UK

(interior designer)

McKim, Mead & White’s founding partners were Charles Follen McKim (1847–1909), William Rutherford Mead (1846–1928) and Stanford White (1853–1906).

The firm’s buildings in New York include the former Pennsylvania Station, the Brooklyn Museum, and the main campus of Columbia University. They also designed the Boston Public Library and the Rhode Island State House. Across the United States, the firm designed buildings in Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Washington, and Wisconsin.

They formed a school of classically trained, technologically skilled designers who practiced well into the mid-twentieth century. According to Robert A. M. Stern, only Frank Lloyd Wright was more important to the identity and character of modern American architecture.

Information in part sourced from Wikipedia .

Theatres on this website in which this architect firm was involved:

The Town Hall, New York, New York, USA

Meyer and Holler, founded in 1906 as “The Milwaukee Building Company”, became known as “Meyer and Holler, Architects, Engineers and Builders” following World War I in 1923.

The company operated primarily in Los Angeles, California, and was busy designing office buildings and movie theatres during the 1920s. The company had connections with many film-related companies and significant local developers including Robert Marsh (1871-1956) and the Chapman Brothers.

The firm became overextended during the early 1930s, and a lawsuit brought by the producer King Vidor in 1932 worsened its financial straits. It declared bankruptcy in October 1932 and was reorganized on October 1934.

Mendel S. Meyer retired in 1936 but the firm continued operations until it was formally dissolved in April 1941.

Information sourced from the Pacific Coast Architecture Database .

Theatres on this website in which this architect firm was involved:

Egyptian Theatre, Hollywood, California, USA

Fox Theatre, Fullerton, California, USA

TCL Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, California, USA

Born: 1877 (Winkleigh, United Kingdom)

Died: 1965 (London, England)

Mitchell was born in September 1877 in Devon, England. By 1901 he had moved to London and was working as a builder’s clerk. By 1911 he was based in Horsell, Surrey, and practicing as an architect.

Mitchell designed the Atmospheric style Savoy Cinema in Dublin, Ireland (opened 1929), and the New Century Cinema in Sittingbourne, England (opened 1937).

Mitchel passed away on 4th January 1965.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Savoy Cinema, Dublin, Leinster, Ireland

Born: 1893

Died: 1975 (Los Angeles, California)

Moeller was a long-time designer for the Skouras Brothers, who managed and redesigned over 200 movie theatres on the US West Coast for Fox West Coast Theatres.

Many Skouras-style redesigns occurred in the 1930s-1940s and were influenced by the 1930s movie set designs of interior designer Cedric Gibbons.

Skouras-style, best described as Art Morderne meets Streamline, utilized a mix of heavy Art Deco and light rococo forms of gilded ornamentation, with monumental ornament and heavy use of drapery.

Moeller was liberal in his use of new aluminum sheeting in Skouras-managed theatres, often made into streamlined wall sculptures.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Fox Theater Bakersfield, California, USA

(1950s alterations)

Morgan, Walls & Clements was an architectural firm based in Los Angeles, California and responsible for many of the city’s landmarks. The firm dates back to the late 19th century: originally Morgan and Walls with principals Octavius Morgan and John A. Walls, the firm worked in the area from before the turn of the century.

Around 1910 Morgan’s son O.W. Morgan was promoted, resulting in the firm Morgan, Walls and Morgan, the elder Morgan retired, and with the emergence of designer Stiles O. Clements (1883–1966) the firm hit its stride with a series of theatres and commercial projects. Clements often worked in Spanish Colonial Revival and Mayan Revival styles, but their major project was the black and gold Art Deco Richfield Tower in Downtown Los Angeles, a commanding presence from its 1928 completion to its 1969 destruction. Walls did not live to see the completion of the building as he had died in 1922.

Clements left the firm in 1937 to start his own practice, Stiles O. Clements & Associates, where he remained until his retirement in 1966.

Be sure to check out our research into projects by this firm in the archive of their work held at the Huntington Library  in California.

Information in part sourced from Wikipedia .

Theatres on this website in which this architect firm was involved:

El Capitan Theatre, Hollywood, California, USA

(surrounding office building and ticket lobby)

Fonda Theatre, Hollywood, California, USA

The Belasco, Los Angeles, California, USA

The Mayan, Los Angeles, California, USA

The Wiltern, Koreatown, California, USA

(surrounding building)

This firm superseded the office of Morgan and Walls in Los Angeles and was active during the period 1910 to 1923.

Notable works includes the Garland Building (housing the Globe Theatre), the Savoy Hotel (demolished), and the Pantages Theatre Building.

In partnership with designer Stiles O. Clements (1883–1966) the firm became Morgan, Walls & Clements and hit its stride with a series of theatres and commercial projects. Be sure to check out our research into projects by this firm in the archive of their work held at the Huntington Library  in California.

Theatres on this website in which this architect firm was involved:

Globe Theatre, Los Angeles, California, USA

(surrounding office building)

Born: 1877 (Los Angeles, California)

Died: 1959 (Los Angeles, California)

Samuel Tilden Norton, or S. Tilden Norton as he was known professionally, was a Los Angeles-based architect active in the first decades of the 20th century. During his professional career he was associated with the firm of Norton & Wallis, responsible for the design of many Los Angeles landmarks.

Following his graduation from high school, Norton immediately began his professional training working as a draftsman for Edward Neissen, a Los Angeles architect. He later moved temporarily to New York City for further design apprenticeship work. Upon his return to Los Angeles, Norton founded his own architectural firm around 1902.

Norton was very involved in his community. He was a founder and charter member of the Hillcrest Country Club and served as a director of the Prudential Building and Loan Association. He was also a proud upholder of his faith, serving as president of the Board of Trustees of Congregation B’nai B’rith and other organizations. In addition, he was a director of the Federation of Jewish Welfare Organizations, the Jewish Welfare Fund, and Wilshire Boulevard Temple. Norton was professionally active as well, having served as president of the Southern California Chapter of the American Institute of Architects which he had joined around 1912. He also wrote articles about houses for The Illustrated Magazine beginning in the early 1900s.

Information in part sourced from Wikipedia .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Greek Theatre, California, USA

Los Angeles Theatre, California, USA

(Associate Architect)

Peacock & Frank was an architect firm based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was the partnership of architects Armin Frank and Urban Peacock.

Theatres on this website in which this architect firm was involved:

Venetian Theatre, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

Born: 1892 (San Francisco, California)

Died: 1946 (San Francisco, California)

Despite having never graduated from high school, Timothy Ludwig Pflueger was a successful architect in his native San Francisco Bay Area. Pflueger started as a working-class draftsman with the firm of Miller and De Colmesnil, Architects and attended night classes at the San Francisco Architectural Club.

Pflueger, in conjunction with James R. Miller, designed some of San Francisco’s leading skyscrapers and movie theatres in the 1920s. Rather than breaking new ground with his designs, Pflueger captured the spirit of the times and refined it, adding a distinct personal flair.

Notable theatres in the San Francisco Bay Area designed by Pflueger include the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, the Alameda Theatre, and the Castro Theatre in San Francisco.

Pflueger filed a patent application for a new form of ceiling and wall construction in late 1931, relating to the special construction of the ceilings and walls of rooms whereby illuminated effects were secured by way of elaborate designs carried by illuminated effects of varied or changing colors. The invention was principally adapted for the ceilings of theatres, large halls, and rooms for public gatherings where unusual lighting and color effects were desired.

Pflueger passed away in late 1946 having never married.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Alameda Theatre, California, USA

Born: 1835 (Bath, UK)

Died: 1897 (London, UK)

Phipps was born in Bath, where he married Miss Honnor Hicks in 1860 and by whom he had two sons and three daughters.

Phipps’ first major work was rebuilding the Theatre Royal in Bath in 1862/3, after the old theatre had been destroyed by fire.

Phipps later moved to London and established himself as a leading theatrical architect. London theatres he designed include the Strand, Prince’s, Lyric, Garrick, Tivoli, Daly’s, and the original Shaftesbury Theatre.

Phipps was a fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, serving on its council in 1875–6, and also of the Society of Antiquaries.

Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre is considered Phipps’ best preserved work due to its lack of substantial alterations since its opening in 1883. The Theatre Royal in Glasgow was one of his largest works, and Her Majesty’s Theatre in London was his last major work to be completed during his lifetime.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

His Majesty’s Theatre, London, England, UK

(current building)

Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Scotland, UK

Theatre Royal, Bristol, England, UK

(1867 renovations)

Born: 1937 (Genoa, Italy)

Piano was born and raised in Genoa, Italy, into a family of builders. He studied architecture at the University of Florence and Polytechnic University of Milan, graduating in 1964.

Piano taught at the Polytechnic University from 1965 until 1968, and expanded his horizons and technical skills by working in two large international firms. He completed his first building in 1968. In 1970, he received his first international commission, for the Pavilion of Italian Industry for Expo 70 in Osaka, Japan.

In 1971 British architect Richard Rogers formed a partnership with Piano and they worked together until 1977.

Piano’s notable buildings include the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (with Richard Rogers, 1977), The Shard in London (2012), the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City (2015), Istanbul Modern in Istanbul (2022) and Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in Athens (2016). Piano won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1998.

Information in part sourced from Wikipedia .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Academy Museum, California, USA

Born: 1867 (England)

Died: 1940 (Chicago, Illinois)

John Edmund Oldaker Pridmore was a British-American architect, best known for his theatre designs.

Pridmore was born in England and educated in Birmingham. He immigrated to the United States in 1880, moving to Chicago, Illinois in 1883. Pridmore apprenticed as an architect for the next seven years.

He founded his own studio in 1890, partnering with Leon Stanhope for six years starting in 1893. Pridmore designed a number of apartment buildings in the Woodlawn, Austin, Edgewater, and Logan Square neighborhoods. However, he became known as a prominent designer of theatres and churches.

In 1901, he designed the Bush Temple of Music at the intersection of Clark Street and Chicago Avenue. From 1909 to 1911, Joseph W. McCarthy studied under him.

In 1918, he designed the Midway Theater in Rockford. The State Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota opened in 1921. Also that year, his Victory Theatre in Evansville, Indiana opened. He died on 1st February 1940 at the age of 75.

Information in part sourced from Wikipedia .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Nortown Theater, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Varsity Theatre, Evanston, Illinois, USA

Born: 1889 (Glasgow, Scotland)

Died: 1971 (Seattle, WA)

Priteca served an apprenticeship in Edinburgh under architect Robert MacFarlane Cameron from 1904–1909, and during this time earned degrees from the University of Edinburgh and the Royal College of Art. He emigrated to the United States, where he settled in Seattle, Washington, in 1909.

Priteca met Seattle vaudeville theatre owner Alexander Pantages in 1910 and won from him a commission to design the San Francisco Pantages Theater (1911), the first of many so-named vaudeville and motion picture houses in what would become one of the largest theater chains in North America.

In all, Priteca designed 22 theaters for Pantages and another 128 for other theater owners. Notable theaters include the Coliseum (1915) in Seattle; the Pantages (1918) in Tacoma, Washington; the Pantages (1920) in Los Angeles (downtown); the Pantages in San Diego (1924); the Pantages (renamed The Orpheum) (1926) in San Francisco (downtown); the Pantages (1928) in Fresno, California; the Paramount (1929) in Seattle; the Pantages (1929) in Hollywood (the last and largest of the Pantages theaters); the Warner on Pacific Boulevard in Huntington Park (1930); and the Admiral (1942) in West Seattle, and the Orpheum in Vancouver, Canada.

Priteca also designed the 1934 Grandstand and Clubhouse of Longacres Racetrack in Renton, Washington, which operated from 1935–1994 and has since been demolished.

Pantages is said to have liked Priteca as a theatre architect for his ability to create the appearance of opulence within a less-than-opulent budget. Pantages is quoted as saying: “Any damn fool can make a place look like a million dollars by spending a million dollars, but it’s not everybody who can do the same thing with half a million”.

Priteca’s apprentices included Gregory Ain, who went on to success as a modernist architect. Ain worked with Priteca for a short time in the late 1920s and helped draw the Los Angeles Pantages.

In 1951, Priteca became a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. He remained active as an architect well into his eighties, working as a consultant in the design of the Seattle Opera House (1962) and the Portland, Oregon, Civic Auditorium (1968).

Priteca died in Seattle on October 1, 1971. He was posthumously awarded honorary membership of the Theatre Historical Society of America.

Information in part sourced from Wikipedia .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Pantages Theatre, Hollywood, California, USA

Warner Grand, San Pedro, California, USA

Warner Theatre, Huntington Park, California, USA

The architectural firm Rapp and Rapp was active in Chicago, Illinois, during the early twentieth century.

Brothers Cornelius Ward Rapp (1861–1926) and George Leslie Rapp (1878–1941) of Carbondale, Illinois, were the named partners and 1899 alumni of the University of Illinois School of Architecture. A third brother, Isaac Rapp, was also a well-known architect primarily in Colorado and New Mexico.

The first theatre designed by the firm was the now-demolished Majestic Theatre  in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

The firm is well known as one of the leading designers of early twentieth century movie palaces. It designed over 400 theatres, including the Fox West Theatre in Trinidad, Colorado (1907), the Five Flags Theater in Dubuque, Iowa (1910), the Chicago Theatre (1921) and Oriental (now Nederlander) Theatre (1926) in Chicago, Illinois, and Paramount theatres in New York (1926) and Aurora (1931).

Theatres on this website in which this architect firm was involved:

Chicago Theatre, Illinois, USA

CIBC Theatre, Chicago, Illinois, USA

(theatre)

Copernicus Center, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Paramount Theatre, Toledo, Ohio, USA

Riviera Theatre, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Born: 1886 (New York City, New York)

Died: 1966 (Chicago, Illinois)

Born in New York City, Rebori was the son of an engineer who had immigrated to the U.S. from Italy.

From 1905 until 1907, Rebori attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he met his future wife, Nannie Prendergast of Wheaton, Illinois, whose farm adjoined that of the parents of Chicago Tribune publisher Robert R. McCormick. Rebori and Prendergast married in 1913. From 1908 until 1909, Rebori studied in the Ecole des Beaux Arts, subsequently working for the neo-classical architect Cass Gilbert in New York. Rebori earned a bachelor’s degree from the Armour Institute of Technology in 1911.

In 1909, Rebori moved to Chicago as a professor of architecture at the Armour Institute. The following year, he met famed architect Louis Sullivan, who became a mentor to Rebori.

Rebori worked in the office of architect Jarvis Hunt from 1914 until 1922, after which point he founded his own firm, Rebori, Wentworth, Dewey and McCormick. Rebori’s firm eventually dissolved in 1932, and he worked in private practice by himself until 1940. He performed various wartime projects from 1941 until 1944, and then worked as a consulting architect for DeLeuw, Cather & Co. from 1944 until 1955. Rebori also worked in private practice from 1952 until 1961, when he retired.

Information in part sourced from Wikipedia .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Studebaker Theater, Chicago, Illinois, USA

(1917 remodel)

The Reid Brothers began architectural operations in Evansville, Indiana, with James W. Reid and Merritt J. Reid from 1880-1891. James headed West in late 1886 with youngest brother Watson to open an office in San Diego, California, which lasted until 1899. James then reestablished the firm’s headquarters in San Francisco, California, between 1889-1891; Merritt came West to open a Portland, Oregon, office in 1891. Watson remained in San Diego until 1899, when he chose to return to New Brunswick, Canada.

The Reid Brothers’ San Francisco office prospered with many commissions after the 1906 earthquake, working on many commissions for schools and theatres in the Bay Area. James closed the Reid Brothers firm after Merritt’s death in 1932.

Notable California landmarks designed by Reid Bros. include the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland, and the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego. The firm designed over 40 theatres in the Bay Area and wider northern California area.

Information in part sourced from Pacific Coast Architecture Database .

Theatres on this website in which this architect firm was involved:

Golden State Theatre, Monterey, California, USA

Grand Lake Theatre, Oakland, California, USA

Merced Theatre, Merced, California, USA

Palace Theater, Oakland, California, USA

The State Room, South San Francisco, California, USA

Born: 1956 (Chicago, Illinois)

David Rockwell, FAIA, has long harbored a fascination with immersive environments. He grew up in the theatre — his mother, a vaudeville dancer and choreographer, often cast him in community repertory productions. But when he was 12, David’s family had a dramatic scene change, moving from Deal, New Jersey to Guadalajara, Mexico. There he discovered a whole new world of vibrant marketplaces, street life, and public spaces.

After training in architecture at Syracuse University and the Architectural Association in London, David brought his passion for theatre and artistic eye for the color and spectacle of Mexico to his profession. Today, his work ranges from restaurants, hotels, airport terminals, and hospitals, to festivals, museum exhibitions, and Broadway sets.

David founded Rockwell Group in 1984. The 250-person award winning, cross-disciplinary architecture and design practice is based in New York City, with satellite offices in Madrid and Los Angeles.

Information sourced from the Rockwell Group .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Dolby Theatre, Hollywood, California, USA

Born: 1859 (St Louis, Missouri)

Died: 1943 (Los Angeles, California)

Alfred Faist Rosenheim, FAIA was an architect born in St. Louis, Missouri and a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. He was one of the leading architects in Los Angeles in the early part of the 20th century. His major works include the Hellman Building, the Hamburger Department Store, Second Church of Christ Scientist and the Eugene W. Britt House.

Rosenheim belonged to the Western Association of Architects, a professional group pre-dating the American Institute of Architects (AIA), and was a leading member of the AIA in 1885. Rosenheim served as President of the Southern California Chapter of the AIA, and was made an AIA Fellow in 1889.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Globe Theatre, Los Angeles, California, USA

(theatre interior)

Alfred Rosenthal, also known as A.B. Rosenthal, was active on the West Coast of the United States, designing buildings in Santa Barbara and Los Angeles.

Rosenthal is perhaps best known for the Granada Theatre Building in Santa Barbara, California, which famously withstood the 1925 Santa Barbara earthquake and has been Santa Barbara’s tallest building since its completion in 1924.

In Los Angeles, Rosenthal designed the California Theatre on Main St (opened 1918, demolished 1990).

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Granada Theatre, Santa Barbara, California, USA

Schenck and Williams was an architectural firm based in Dayton, Ohio. The firm’s partners were Harry J. Williams and Harry I. Schenck, both 1903 Cornell University graduates and members of the American Institute of Architects.

The firm’s projects included the Hawthorn Hill home for Orville Wright and his sister and father, the Dayton Young Men’s Christian Association Building, and the Engineers Club of Dayton building.

Information in part sourced from Wikipedia .

Theatres on this website in which this architect firm was involved:

Plaza Theatre, Palm Springs, California, USA

Born: 1883 (Moyhu, Australia)

Died: 1954 (Vancouver, Canada)

Henry Holdsby Simmonds was born in Australia but is known for his work as a Vancouver-based architect with a specialization in designing theatres. He designed Vancouver’s Stanley Theatre and many of the Odeon theatre chain cinemas.

A record of Simmonds’ work is available at the Dictionary of Architects in Canada .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Patricia Theatre, Powell River, British Columbia, Canada

Born: 1869 (Ohio)

Died: 1958 (Los Angeles, California)

Smith worked on a number of Los Angeles area theatre buildings with Lilly and Fletcher Company as building contractors, and had an office in the Lilly and Fletcher Building in Los Angeles in 1924.

Smith worked extensively for the Bard’s and Fox West Coast chains in the 1920s and designed approximately 40 theatres in total during his career. Extant Los Angeles area theatres designed by Smith include the Vista Theatre in Los Feliz and the Rialto Theatre in South Pasadena.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Rialto Theatre, South Pasadena, California, USA

Vista Theatre, Los Feliz, California, USA

Born: 1881 (Kennington, UK)

Died: 1948 (London, UK)

Thomas Retford Somerford was a British architect, best known for the temperance movement billiard halls he designed for the Temperance Billiard Hall Co Ltd, a Lancashire company that as part of the wider temperance movement built billiard halls in the north of England and London.

Somerford was initially an assistant to Norman Evans, and later was lead architect in his own right. Several of the halls designed by Somerford are now Grade II listed buildings.

Together with fellow architect Edward A. Stone, Somerford designed several large-scale cinemas for the Astoria theatre chain.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

O2 Academy Brixton, London, England, UK

Odeon Streatham, London, England, UK

Rainbow Theatre, London, England, UK

Born: 1892 (Ionia, Michigan)

Died: 1952 (Los Angeles, California)

Spaulding was born in Ionia (Michigan) into a farming family and moved to California just before turning 30. Spaulding initially worked as a draughtsman for Myron Hunt around 1921 before forming his own architect firm in 1923 and partnering with other architects the following year.

Spaulding collaborated with fellow architect Walter I. Webber on several projects including the Avalon Theatre and Ballroom on Catalina Island for chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Jr., and two houses for prolific movie star Harold Lloyd.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Avalon Theatre, Catalina Island, California, USA

Born: 1863 (Australia)

Died: 1933 (Maidenhead, UK)

Sprague was an articled clerk for Frank Matcham for four years, then in 1880 was an articled clerk for Walter Emden for three years. He was in a partnership with Bertie Crewe until 1895.

Sprague went on to design a large number of theatres and music halls, almost all of them in London. At the height of his career he showed a productivity worthy of mentor Frank Matcham, producing six theatres in Westminster in less than four years.

Unlike Matcham and Emden, Sprague studied architectural forms and conventions and used his knowledge in his designs, saying of himself that he “liked the Italian Renaissance” as a style for his frontages, but would take liberties when needed “to get the best effects”.

In 1902, the theatre newspaper The Era described Sprague as “Britain’s youngest theatrical designer, with more London houses to his credit than any other man in the same profession”.

Information in part sourced from Wikipedia .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield, England, UK

Born: 1880 (Rotherhithe, UK)

Edward Albert Stone was the Picture House Trust’s (PHT) chairman and principal architect.

The collaboration of Stone with colleague Thomas R. Somerford designed four London Astoria cinemas / movie theatres: Brixton (1929), Old Kent Road (1930), Finsbury Park (1930), and Streatham (1930).

The spectacular Astoria cinemas all built by PHT were made possible because of money from the U.S.-based Paramount Corporation, and from 1931 they became known as the Paramount Astorias. The Astorias were the most important group of early London Atmospheric cinemas. With their lavishly themed interior scenic effects, they ushered in a new era of British picture houses.

Information in part sourced from Islington Council .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

O2 Academy Brixton, London, England, UK

Odeon Streatham, London, England, UK

Born: 1902 (Fayetteville, Arkansas)

Died: 1978 (New York, New York)

Edward Durell Stone was an American architect known for the formal, highly decorative buildings he designed in the 1950s and 1960s.

Stone was the youngest of four children. He displayed an aptitude for drawing at an early age. After attending the University of Arkansas, Stone moved to Boston in 1922. He took classes at the Boston Architectural Club (now Boston Architectural College), Harvard University’s School of Architecture (where he earned a scholarship), and MIT, though he never earned a degree.

Stone began his career as a draftsman at the Boston-based firm Coolidge, Shepley, Bulfinch and Abbott. He moved to New York in 1929, joining the firm of Schultze & Weaver, where he designed the main lobby, grand ballroom, and private dining rooms of the Waldorf-Astoria. He received his first independent commission in 1933.

Stone traveled often to Italy and drew upon European precedents in his work. He became an early pioneer of the New Formalist style, whose classically inspired forms and materials countered the stark minimalism of the International Style.

Stone retired in 1974 and died on August 6, 1978. His firm, Edward Durell Stone & Associates, continued until 1993.

Stone’s best-known works include the Museum of Modern Art, in New York City, the United States Embassy in New Delhi, India, the Keller Center at the University of Chicago, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Stone worked for the Associated Architects of Rockefeller Center and became the principal designer of Radio City Music Hall.

Information sourced from Wikipedia  and the Los Angeles Conservancy .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Radio City Music Hall, New York, New York, USA

Born: 1880 (Rotherhithe, UK)

Edward Albert Stone was the Picture House Trust’s (PHT) chairman and principal architect.

The collaboration of Stone with colleague Thomas R. Somerford designed four London Astoria cinemas / movie theatres: Brixton (1929), Old Kent Road (1930), Finsbury Park (1930), and Streatham (1930).

The spectacular Astoria cinemas all built by PHT were made possible because of money from the U.S.-based Paramount Corporation, and from 1931 they became known as the Paramount Astorias. The Astorias were the most important group of early London Atmospheric cinemas. With their lavishly themed interior scenic effects, they ushered in a new era of British picture houses.

Information in part sourced from Islington Council .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Rainbow Theatre, London, England, UK

Born: 1868 (Dundee, Scotland)

Died: 1956 (Newton Mearns, Scotland)

John Daniel Swanston was born in Dundee in 1868 and educated at Dollar Academy. He was articled to William Simpson of Stirling c. 1884, thereafter being progressively assistant to Thomas Greenshields Leadbetter of Edinburgh (c. 1889-90), Alexander Cullen of Glasgow and Hamilton (probably c. 1891-92) and James Graham Fairley of Edinburgh (c. 1893-94), before commencing practice on his own account at 196 High Street, Kirkcaldy in 1895.

From at least 1896, Swanston practiced in partnership with George Lindsay Legge as Swanston & Legge, but Legge died some time between 1900 and 1903. A second partnership was formed with William Syme in 1904, the office being located in Redburn Wynd. From his earliest years in Kirkcaldy, Swanston was prominent in public life, becoming town councilor for the Second Ward and a burgess in November 1900. He was convener of the Street Committee from November 1904 to November 1908.

Like many other architects, Swanston was an enthusiastic volunteer and was commissioned in the 1st Forth Royal Garrison Artillery. After the First World War broke out, he was commissioned as a captain in the Black Watch and was for a time commandant of Lewes prisoner-of-war camp in Sussex.

Swanston was admitted FRIBA in February 1925. Syme predeceased Swanston, who thereafter practiced alone. He specialized in theatre, cinema and public house work, mostly in a bold neo-baroque or half-timbered neo-Tudor idiom.

Swanston retired in 1951 and made a last public appearance in November 1954 with a talk on the design of the King’s Theatre in Kirkcaldy and the changes made since he originally designed it in 1904. He died on 25 January 1956 at the home of his daughter Dr Muriel Swanston, who had taken him into her care.

Information in part sourced from the Dictionary of Scottish Architects .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

(interior)

Born: 1874

Died: 1948

William Edward Trent was born in 1874 and articled to Henry Poston of Lombard Street, London in 1892

Starting in 1909 Trent specialized in cinema design. This led to his appointment first as the chief architect to Provincial Cinematograph Theatres (PCT), and then as architect to the Gaumont British Picture Corporation, which took over PCT in 1929. One of Trent’s best known extant theatres in the Apollo Victoria Theatre in London.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

New Victoria Cinema, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

The Detroit-based firm of Verner, Wilhelm and Molby consisted of partners Frank L. Molby (architect), William F. Verner (engineer), and Eugene B. Wilhelm. The partnership only lasted a few years during the 1920s.

The Redford Theatre in Detroit, Michigan, is the only theatre designed by the firm thus far documented. According to HistoricDetroit.org  the firm was best known for designing schools.

Theatres on this website in which this architect firm was involved:

Redford Theatre, Detroit, Michigan, USA

William Milburn (1858-1935) and his brother Thomas R. Milburn (1862-1943) formed their architectural partnership in 1897.

William and Thomas Milburn were the sons of Captain William Milburn, a ship-owner and shipping surveyor in Sunderland. William was articled to John Tillman of Sunderland and remained as assistant, studying at Sunderland School of Art. He commenced independent practice in Sunderland in 1879 at the early age of 21, but appears from his nomination form to have taken what was probably a short career break to study at the South Kensington Schools in 1880.

Thomas was born in 1861 and articled to John Tillman in 1877. He remained as assistant after the end of his articles but spent some time with Liverpool Corporation before setting up in practice in Sunderland in 1884 independently of his brother. In 1893 Thomas designed the first of his theatres, the Olympia in Newcastle upon Tyne (in association with Oliver & Leeson). Later that year the Milburn brothers began their association with the Moss Empires circuit by designing the South Shields Empire Palace, for which Frank Matcham was consultant. The experience gained at the Empire Palace made them the premier theatre firm in the north of England.

In 1896-97 William and Thomas merged their practices as W & T R Milburn. Following the death of Moss Empires’ favorite architect Frank Matcham in 1920, the Milburn brothers became the natural successor firm for new builds and renovation projects for the Stoll Moss group.

In 1925 Thomas Milburn embarked in Southampton for a trip to the United States where he would study the design and construction of the many new theatres and movie palaces being built across the country. His journey took him from New York to Chicago and San Francisco. In particular, he was impressed with the architectural work of Scottish born architect Thomas Lamb, the many new Loew’s State Theatres, San Francisco’s Fox Theatre, and the unique designs of Madison Square Gardens. Many of the concepts became inspiration to the subsequent designs of the Milburn practice.

Theatres on this website in which this architect firm was involved:

Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

(1928 redesign)

Walker and Eisen based their architectural partnership in Los Angeles. Their firm was founded as an association among Albert Raymond Walker (1881-1958), Percy Augustus Eisen (1885-1946) and Charles M. Hutchison, Sr., (1881-1969), in late 1919.

The journal American Architect and Architecture reported: “Albert R. Walker, P.A. Eisen, Charles M. Hutchison, associated architects, of Los Angeles, Calif., have formed a partnership for practice under the firm name of Walker and Eisen”.

Hutchison left the association in 1921. In the 1920s and 1930s, Walker and Eisen worked on many theatre designs with Clifford A. Balch (1880-1963).

Information sourced from the Pacific Coast Architecture Database .

Theatres on this website in which this architect firm was involved:

The United Theater on Broadway, Los Angeles, California, USA

(surrounding office building)

Born: 1864 (Massachusetts)

Died: 1943 (Los Angeles, California)

Webber was born in Massachusetts however was actively practicing on the US West Coast by the early 20th century. Webber collaborated with fellow architect Sumner M. Spaulding on several projects including the Avalon Theatre and Ballroom on Catalina Island for chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Jr., and two houses for prolific movie star Harold Lloyd.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Avalon Theatre, Catalina Island, California, USA

The architectural firm of Weeks and Day operated in San Francisco, CA, from 1916 until 1930.

Previously, Charles Peter Weeks (1870-1928) had practiced alone in San Francisco.

After Weeks’s death in 1928, William Peyton Day (1883-1966) continued calling the firm “Weeks and Day” until 1930. Day continued to engage in architectural work, under his own name, until 1953.

Theatres on this website in which this architect firm was involved:

Copley Symphony Hall, San Diego, California, USA

State Theatre, Los Angeles, California, USA

The firm of Welton D. Becket and Associates succeeded the firm of Wurdeman and Becket (1939-1949); it was continued by Welton Becket Associates”, 1970-1988, following Welton Becket’s death in 1969. Offices were established in Los Angeles (1933), San Francisco (1949), New York (1950), and Houston (1960).

In the 1980s, the Welton Becket Office was sometimes referred to as the “Becket Group, Architects”. The primary name it went by in the professional literature was “Welton Becket Associates”, not “Welton D. Becket and Associates”.

In 1988, Welton Becket Associates joined with Ellerbe Associates of Minneapolis, to form Ellerbe Becket. Franklin Ellerbe had founded the firm in 1909. At this merger, Ellerbe took control of Becket, and the headquarters moved to Minneapolis. Ellerbe Becket’s initial six offices were located in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, DC, Chicago, IL, and Tampa, FL.

Theatres on this website in which this architect firm was involved:

Los Angeles Music Center, California, USA

Born: 1874 (Melbourne, Australia)

Died: 1956 (San Diego, California)

Australian-born Wheeler was educated in Melbourne where he also studied architecture, before emigrating to Canada in late 1893. Wheeler relocated to San Francisco by 1900 however after the devastating earthquake of 1906 he moved to Tucson, Arizona, where he was the supervising architect for the Southern Pacific Railway from 1907 to 1912.

In late 1912 or early 1913 Wheeler moved to San Diego from where he would operate a successful firm for 30 years. In San Diego, Wheeler is known for the Balboa Theatre (opened 1924), the Eagle’s Masonic Hall (both the original building in 1917 and the remodeling completed in 1934), Temple Beth Israel Synagogue (1926), and All Saints Episcopal Church (1928). Wheeler also designed the Angelus Temple in Los Angeles (1922).

In the late 1920s Wheeler founded the San Diego chapter of the AIA (American Institute of Architects). Around the same time he was appointed by the Governor of California as President of the State Board of Architecture, a title he would hold for eight years.

Wheeler was an accomplished operatic and vaudeville performer in his own right, and it is thought that his familiarity with entertainment and the arts led to some of the performance-enhancing features of the places of entertainment he designed, such as generously-sized orchestra and performer accommodations and favorable acoustics.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Balboa Theatre, San Diego, California, USA

Born: 1881 (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

Died: 1970 (Birmingham, Alabama)

David Oliver Whilldin was born in Philadelphia. He studied at Drexel Institute and the University of Pennsylvania. Whilldin was latterly based in Alabama. Several of the buildings he designed are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including his office building, the Whilldin Building located in Birmingham, Alabama.

Whilldin retired in 1962 before passing away 8 years later in 1970.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Bama Theatre, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA

Born: 1876 (Dunedin, New Zealand)

Died: 1952 (Sydney, New South Wales)

Henry Eli White, also known as Harry White, was a New Zealand-born architect best known for the many theatres and cinemas he designed in New Zealand and Australia in the 1910s and 1920s.

You can read lots more about Henry White here on Wikipedia .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Ambassador’s Theatre, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

(local architect)

Born: 1893 (Royal Center, Indiana)

Died: 1964 (Ootsburg, Wisconsin)

Russell Barr Williamson  was a prominent Milwaukee architect who practiced from the early 1920s into the later 1950s. After apprenticing with internationally known architect Frank Lloyd Wright in Chicago from 1914 to 1917, the Indiana-born Williamson established his own practice in Milwaukee.

Williamson’s architectural work in the 1920s was primarily a mix of prairie style residential designs true to the theories of Frank Lloyd Wright and Mediterranean Revival commercial buildings. The most outstanding surviving examples of his own particularly robust interpretation of the Mediterranean Revival mode are the Eagles Club and the Avalon Theater, both in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There are considerable similarities in the design of the two structures which were conceived only a year apart and were under construction at the same time. Later in his career, Williamson designed in the modern style popular in the 1940s and 1950s.

Williamson was known as a residential architect but records of his commercial work are rare. Therefore, the Avalon Theater and the Eagles Club are among the most distinctive structures in the city from the 1920’s, taking Mediterranean design elements like tile roofs, Baroque twisted columns, arched openings, wrought iron, and tile but infusing them with fanciful elements like the giant figural frieze at the Eagles Club and the inventive foliate forms and almost Deco-like stepped forms on the Avalon façade that lend an aura of exoticism to the building. In recognition of its unique design the Eagles Club has been locally designated since 1989.

Information in part sourced from Donna Schlieman’s January 2004 Historic Designation Report on the Avalon Theater in Milwaukee, WI .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Avalon Atmospheric Theater, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

R.G. Wolff was at one time chief designer for the notable theatre architect firm of Rapp & Rapp. With that firm, Wolff consulted on the design of the extant Chicago Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.

Wolff designed the Atmospheric-style Patio Theatre in Chicago, and various architectural details employed at the DuPage Theater (1928; now demolished) can be seen in the larger and extant Patio Theatre.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Chicago Theatre, Illinois, USA

(consulting architect)

DuPage Theater, Lombard, Illinois, USA

Patio Theater, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Born: 1873 (Albany, New York)

Died: 1955 (Los Angeles, California)

William Lee Woollett was an American architect practicing mainly in California. He designed theatres in Los Angeles in the 1920s including the largest movie theater ever built in Los Angeles, Grauman’s Metropolitan Theatre which opened in 1923.

Woollett was born in Albany, New York to William M. and Sarah Louise Woollett (née Knappen). His father died when he was seven years old.

Around 1892, Woollett studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He apprenticed as a draftsman for Fehmer & Page, Architects, Boston, MA (1892-1896).

Woollett returned to Albany in 1896 to open his office. He was joined a few years later by his younger brother, John Woodward Woollett, also an architect. Together, they founded the firm, Woollett and Woollett Architects becoming the 3rd consecutive generation of Woolletts to practice architecture in Albany. After the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, Woollett and Woollett opened a branch office in San Francisco. William Woollett moved his family to Berkeley in 1908 and closed the Albany office. Woollett and Woollett was located in San Francisco until 1917 when William Lee Woollett relocated to Los Angeles . In 1921, the firm relocated permanently to Los Angeles.

Theatres which Woollett designed include the Rialto Theatre on Broadway (now adaptively used as an Urban Outfitters store), Grauman’s Metropolitan Theatre, and the Million Dollar Theatre.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Million Dollar Theatre, Los Angeles, California, USA

(theatre)

Wright and Gentry operated in Long Beach, California, in the 1920s, with principals Francis H. Gentry and Parker O. Wright, Jr.

The practice was very busy designing residences, fraternal halls, churches and schools – about 13 in Long Beach, and 25 elsewhere in Southern California.

Wright and Gentry designed both the York Rite Temple (now converted to loft apartments) and the Scottish Rite Cathedral in Long Beach, California.

Theatres on this website in which this architect firm was involved:

Long Beach Scottish Rite, California, USA

Born: 1854 (Huntingdon County, Québec, Canada)

Died: 1914 (Los Angeles, California)

Born 1854, Young’s parents were Alexander and Mary Ann (Dowler) Young. Young attended Huntingdon Academy. In 1877, he moved to Denver, Colorado, where he finished his education in construction and architectural drawing. He left thereafter for California, locating in San Francisco for two months before arriving in Los Angeles in the fall of 1878. He immediately opened up his office as an architect and general contractor.

Los Angeles at that time was a thriving city of about 10,000 and there were only two other architects here. Within a short time, demands for plans and architectural drawings were coming in far faster than he could handle them, and he was obliged to give up his work in contracting entirely and confine his attention to architectural work. During this period of building “boom”, he had 87 buildings under construction at one time.

He was the resident architect of the new Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles and built many Catholic churches and schools in the diocese of Los Angeles and Monterey. He served as president of the Southern California Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

In 1880, Young married Mary C. Wilson of Denver. Two children were born to them, Frank Wilson Young and Mary Elizabeth Young Moore. The son joined his father in the family business, and after the father’s death, continued the business under the firm’s name of R. B. Young & Son. Young died at his home in Los Angeles on January 29, 1914, after an illness of several months.

Information sourced from Wikipedia .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Palace Theatre, Los Angeles, California, USA

(Assistant Architect)