War Memorial Opera House
- Architects
- G. Albert Lansburgh Arthur Brown, Jr.
- Year
- 1932
- Style
- Neoclassical
- City
- San Francisco, CA
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The War Memorial Opera House opened in 1932 as the first municipally owned opera house in the United States, financed by $4 million in municipal bonds issued in 1927. Designed by Arthur Brown Jr. and G. Albert Lansburgh, it stands on Van Ness Avenue across from City Hall as part of the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center and has been home to the San Francisco Opera since its opening night.
the building
Roman Doric order. The building employs the classic Roman Doric order in a reserved, sober form judged appropriate to a civic opera house rather than a purely decorative theater front.
Paired with City Hall. Arthur Brown Jr., who designed the adjacent San Francisco City Hall between 1912 and 1916, gave the Opera House a matching Neoclassical presence across Van Ness Avenue.
the style
The Opera House is designed in the Neoclassical style, using the Roman Doric order in a restrained, dignified form suited to a municipal institution built for opera and civic ceremony alike.
More on Neoclassicalthe architect
Arthur Brown Jr. also designed the adjacent San Francisco City Hall (1912-1916); G. Albert Lansburgh was a theater designer responsible for San Francisco's Orpheum Theatre and the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.
significance
The Opera House was the site of the San Francisco Conference in April 1945, the first assembly of the newly formed United Nations, and of the signing of the Treaty of San Francisco in September 1951, which restored peaceful relations between Japan and the Allies after World War Two.
nearby
- San Francisco City Hall
- The Old Main Library
- San Francisco Public Library
- Orpheum Building
- Federal Office Building
- Charles Dietle House