Castro Theatre seating plan revised, but doubts linger
New proposal ‘only way’ to keep venue open, says production firm
To address a long list of community concerns, Another Planet Entertainment has revised its proposal for renovating the Castro Theatre’s floor seating.
The Berkeley production company, which took over management of the historic San Francisco venue last year, has scrapped its previous plan to tear out the fixed orchestralevel seating. On Thursday, Another Planet unveiled a new program that includes motorized raked flooring, allowing for a flexible seating plan for a range of events from film screenings to live concerts.
“There has been a lot of understandable passion and concern about the changes to the Castro,” David Perry, a spokesperson for Another Planet Entertainment, told The Chronicle before a Friends of the Castro Theatre Coalition community meeting at Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church. “Today, we put out a solution that we think is a win-win-win.”
The proposal calls for the 800 existing house seats, which were installed in 2001, to be replaced with a motorized floor that makes both raked seating and tiered standing possible. It would also provide improved sight lines and create a more accessible layout, according to Another Planet.
The new plan will be formally presented Wednesday at a Historic Preservation Commission hearing to discuss the Castro Theatre’s proposed renovations.
“This is not only the best, but the only way to keep the Castro open,” Perry said.
At the community meeting Thursday night hosted by the Castro Theatre Conservancy, which was formed in June to block Another Planet’s renovation plans, a group of film preservationists, architects, members of the LGBTQ community and others in opposition spoke of their Save the Seats campaign.
“Some folks just hearing that slogan can make it seem like our goal really is only about keeping current seats, but that slogan really signifies a much greater set of values and hopes for the theater,” Jen Reck, executive co-chair of the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District, said at Thursday’s meeting. “What’s really underlying that slogan is the recognition of the importance of the Castro Theatre as a historic space, as a space that is an unparalleled place for queer community development and culture.”
The seats are among the many improvements the promotion company, with the help of CAW Architects — a Palo Alto firm that brought Stanford University’s Frost Amphitheater and UC Berkeley’s Hearst Greek Theatre up to date — said it must make to turn the 100-year-old building at 429 Castro St. into a liveevents space.
Other proposed changes include removing the lobby concession area and replacing it with mobile concession stands at the back of the auditorium and in the mezzanine lobby. Changes that won’t be visible to patrons include the addition of a green room, acoustic upgrades and a new ventilation system. Americans with Disabilities Act upgrades, including adding ramps and accommodations for wheelchair-accessible seating, are also in the works.
The Conservancy, which has the support of cinematic icons George Lucas and Martin Scorsese, provided speaking points to the town hall’s attendees, encouraging them to attend the upcoming Historic Preservation Commission meeting, at which the Castro’s landmark designation could be amended to include both exterior and interior features of the theater.
The seating isn’t currently part of the building’s landmark designation from the city.
“Imagine something like
Mission Dolores without the pews or City Lights bookstore without the shelves,” said Christine Madrid French, a historian and preservationist, of the Castro Theatre, long considered one of the most significant film and LGBTQ spaces in the Bay Area. “It is the interior of a structure that are the very things that make the building a house or theater, so we must save this building. It is the crown jewel of the Castro. Indeed, the queen of the neighborhood.”
Another Planet’s plans to turn the century-old cinematic palace designed by architect Timothy Pflueger into a venue similar to its other properties, such as the Fox Theater in Oakland and Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, have been met with vocal opposition.
But such ambitious plans are not a new challenge for Another Planet, which revived the Graham auditorium in 2010, when the city was set to shutter the music venue, and the Fox Theater in 2008. The latter, a former Oakland movie house, reopened as part of a $75 million renovation after sitting empty for 42 years. Both venues currently do not have floor seating but have provided folding chairs during certain events such as comedy shows.
The proposed plan for the Castro is a technologically advanced solution for both music and film fans, the company said.
“We fully support the proposed changes by APE that allow the theatre to have versatile programming and upgraded seat configurations, which will hopefully help stave off the fate of so many other theaters of this era that have closed, been developed into other occupancies or converted to retail shops,” Castro Theatre owners Steve Nasser and Elaine Nasser Padian of Bay Properties Inc. said in a statement.
But the Conservancy is not convinced this is the only option. The group is pushing to preserve and maintain the Castro Theatre auditorium as it is, inside and out, with the hopes of persuading Another Planet and the Nassers to turn it into a nonprofit public venue.
“These are the same plans that they tried to sell us on a year ago,” said Stephen Torres, executive co-chair of the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District. “Nothing has changed. What they have changed are the adjectives that they used to describe them.”