Showing posts with label Theaters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Theaters. Show all posts

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Chicago Theater

 
The Chicago Theater, in Chicago, Il, has had a rich history since it opened in 1921.  The Chicago Theatre was the first large, lavish movie palace in America and was the prototype for all others. This beautiful movie palace was constructed for $4 million by theatre owners Barney and Abe Balaban and Sam and Morris Katz and designed by Cornelius and George Rapp. It was the flagship of the Balaban and Katz theatre chain.
 
The theater is still around today and is well-preserved.  See a full history here.

Friday, February 24, 2012

The Orchestra Promenade




The Kansas City Municipal Auditorium was one of the buildings built in 1934 as part of a "Ten Year Plan" championed by various local politicians including Harry S. Truman and Thomas Pendergast. Other buildings in the plan included the Kansas City City Hall and the Kansas City branch of the Jackson County Courthouse.

The streamline moderne architecture was designed by the lead architectural firm of Gentry, Voskamp & Neville to appeal to new visitors with cool and confident restraint. True to its name, the style promised to envelop the visitor in modernity, assuring him/her that Kansas City was a rising star in the country, a place to recommend to friends and colleagues. When the building opened in 1935, it was called by the Architectural Record "one of the 10 best buildings of the world that year" In 2000, the Princeton Architectural Press called it one of the 500 most important architectural works in the United States
The Auditorium is now part of the Kansas City Convention Center, but I don't know if this beautiful lobby survives. Can any locals help us out?