333 S Boylston St
Los Angeles, CA 90017
333 S Boylston St
Los Angeles, CA 90017
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles is a contemporary art museum with three locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near Walt Disney Concert Hall. MOCA's original space, initially intended as a "temporary" exhibit space while the main facility was built, is now known as the Geffen Contemporary, in the Little Tokyo district of downtown Los Angeles. The Pacific Design Center facility is in West Hollywood.The museum's exhibits consist primarily of American and European contemporary art created after 1940. Since the museum's inception, MOCA's programming has been defined by its multi-disciplinary approach to contemporary art.FoundingIn a 1979 political fund raising event at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, Councilman Joel Wachs, and local philanthropist Marcia Simon Weisman happened to be seated at the same table. Throughout the evening, Weisman passionately discussed the city's need for a contemporary art museum. In the following weeks, the Mayor's Museum Advisory Committee was organized. The committee, led by William A. Norris, set about creating a museum from scratch, including locating funds, trustees, directors, curators, a gallery, and most importantly an art collection. That same year, Weisman and five other key local collectors signed an agreement whereby they would pledge chunks of their private collections, worth up to $6 million, "to create a museum of standing and repute."
The landmark Fine Arts Building is located at 811 West 7th Street in Downtown Los Angeles, California. Also known as the Global Marine House, it was declared a historic cultural monument in 1974.ArchitectureThe building was designed by the architects Albert Raymond Walker (1881–1958) and Percy Augustus Eisen (1885–1946) in 1927. It is a compact twelve-storey block on an H-shaped plan with a facing of smooth and squared slabs of light-coloured stone.FaçadeThe first three storeys present a striking façade with a trapezoidal profile. The façade rises the entire height of the building, the side of which on the street is divided into three horizontal registers that echo the classic arrangement of a Renaissance palace in distinct lower, central and upper sections. In the Fine Arts Building as in its ancient Italian models, being closest to the eye of the beholder, the bottom section is the part on which the most sumptuous decoration and precise architectural definition is lavished.The façade's central axis is emphasized by a large entrance portal, with a rounded arch that rises the height of two storeys. This deep, splayed passageway has an arched lintel decorated with plant motifs that introduces serried ranks of arches on either side. They are resting alternately on small columns and pillars variously decorated with fantastic creatures and inlaid geometric patterns. The wall beneath the great arch is densely worked with volutes of acanthus leaves and concatenated circles simulating rope made entirely of terracotta reliefs. The entrance is divided in two by a column of green marble with a capital and decorated entablature on which the two smaller arches rest.
The Downtown Palace opened with the words: “The Standard Orpheum of Vaudeville announces the opening tonight of its fine new theatre between sixth and seventies streets. All seats for tonight are sold, but for the balance of inaugural week as well as in the future they maybe obtained at the Box Office of the New House.” This proclamation revealed arguably the most charming, intimate venue in the storied Historic Core of Downtown Los Angeles. And now the old entertainment soul pushes into the new, carrying a legacy starting with a June 26th, 1911 inaugural performance by Sophie Tucker through subsequent star attractions such as Harry Houdini, Sarah Bernhardt, and Fred Astaire (even the greatest animal acts had their run!), to more recent marquee names like Julian Casablancas, Lucent Dossier Experience, Bill Nye (The Science Guy), Eugene Mirman, Tig Notaro, Last Remaining Seats, and Cinespia, to name a few. No longer an Orpheum (a word derived from the Greek mythological poet and musician Orpheus, whose skills could charm animals, plants, and even rocks) nor a newsreel iteration known as the “Palace Newsreel Theatre,” (including a visible ghost sign which can still be seen on the back alley wall), but a fully restored Broadway gem—the charming and lavish Palace Theatre, one of the oldest theatres in Los Angeles and the oldest surviving vaudeville circuit Orpheum theatre, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the historic Broadway corridor of downtown Los Angeles, California. On June 26, 2011, the “new” Palace celebrated its centennial by unveiling a $1 million restoration by Shahram Delijani, stirring Linda Dishman, executive director of the LA Conservancy to herald, "The Palace is one of the jewels of Broadway . . . and we're thrilled that they've done such a magnificent restoration.” While the Palace has embraced it's authenticity, it has also been technically upgraded with new audio, lighting, and electrical renovations, the heart of which is a matched and calibrated, state-of-the-art Midas III/d&b audiotechnik sound system intended to coax the naturally excellent acoustics across the one thousand fully restored, plush velvet wrapped seats, none of which are more than eighty feet from center stage. The Palace is one of the few venues to juxtapose an architecturally and historically significant structure with a state of the art sound system and classic 35 mm Simplex E7 celluloid projectors. Coupled with expanded bar, lounge, artist, patron, and VIP areas, the Palace is prepared to bring it’s legacy of cultural engagement and live performance into fully modern times, With its beautifully preserved architecture and decor modeled after the great opera houses of 17th Century Europe, or conversely as “something out of Tom Waits song,” restored and improved interior areas and cutting edge technical capabilities, the Palace Theatre in downtown Los Angeles can transform your next special event or live concert into a truly unforgettable, even magical experience. Exciting times lay ahead. Please direct special event and concert inquiries to: Events/Programming Department Broadway Theatre Group: Palace, Los Angeles, Tower Theatres ph: 213-488-2009 email: [email protected] General info: 213-488-2010 Theatre Manager and Location Filming: Edward Baney office: 213-629-2939 The Downtown Palace Quick Specs: Seating capacity: Main Auditorium: 608 Mezzanine: 460 Total: 1068 Sound Reinforcement: Midas III FOH console d&b audiotechnik V-Series line array (flown) w/B2 subs Trussing: 3 x 40' on stage truss 1 x 10' downstage truss. Power: 500 amps/3phase on stage 200 amps Stage Right 300 amps Stage Left Stage: 40’ wide at proscenium 31’ 6” deep from smoke pocket to back wall 36’ from stage to top of proscenium arch at center Projection: Dual Strong International Simplex E7 35 mm projectors with Xenon lamp houses ***Full specs, seating chart, pricing available upon request. Architectural Highlights: G. Albert Lansburg, an American architect known for his work on luxury cinemas and theatres, with assistance by Robert Brown Young, designed The Palace. The décor was elegant and subdued, with shades of gold, pink and blue predominating. Marble walls and mosaic tiles were used throughout the lobbies, and the basement featured a paneled lounge with a fireplace. The former ladies lounge upstairs has windows overlooking the outer lobby reminiscent of a lovely Florentine early Renaissance palazzo. Landburg enlisted noted Catalonian architectural sculptor Domingo Mora, who also worked on New York City’s Metropolitan Opera House, to design and create the striking brick and polychrome terra cotta facade—the first use of multi-colored stone in that era—formed into flowers, fairies, and theatrical masks, illustrating the spirit of entertainment. Four bas relief panels depicting the four muses of vaudeville -- Song, Dance, Music, and Drama—as well as a Troubadour figure, all illuminated by the polychromatic glow of an original “modern” neon marquee and accompanying neon vertical blades. The interior decoration is distinctly French Renaissance, with garland-draped columns and lit painted domes floating above like drifting luminous planets, and a color scheme of pale pastels, reflecting off the shells which illuminate the walls casting a soft lit ambience inside the auditorium. The auditorium was designed with excellent acoustics for the pre-amplified age. The intimate vertical design comprises of two balconies ensuring that no pair of ears or eyes are far from the stage. On the two walls surrounding the stage, hang two massive framed pastoral murals by painter Candelario Rivas and his crew working under the interior design direction of master American muralist Anthony Heinsbergen, the foremost designer of North American movie theatre interiors. To view a more extensive history of the Downtown Palace, please see the excellent web archive by Bill Counter: https://sites.google.com/site/downtownlosangelestheatres/palace-theatre also on FB: https://www.facebook.com/losangelestheatres And these other great historical resources: Los Angeles Historical Theatre Foundation http://www.lahtf.org LA Conservancy https://www.laconservancy.org Cinema Treasures http://cinematreasures.org