A landmark step
Renovation of 1888 Opera House a cultural boon for Bayview
When the Bayview Opera House reopens this weekend after a $5.7 million renovation that took nearly three years, the celebration will be well deserved.
There’s also much that still should happen — not only to bring the 1888 landmark to its full potential, but also to lessen the gap in resources between the Bayview and the rest of San Francisco, a disconnect that helps explain why the Opera House’s resurrection has proceeded so slowly.
“I feel ecstatic — it has been such a long haul,” said Barbara Ockel, executive director of Bayview Opera House Inc., the nonprofit that manages the facility for the San Francisco Arts Commission.
Ockel has been in the post since 2008,
beginning as interim manager when she happened to be the board member of the nonprofit willing to take on the job. That was midway through the stop-and-start makeover of the facility, which began life as a Masonic Lodge performance hall. In the early 2000s it was touted as a portal to a multiblock “town center,” while in 2007 the “ultimate renovation” of the Opera House was announced at an event that included then-Mayor Gavin Newsom.
A ceremonial ribboncutting was held in July, but things will finally get going after the “grand reopening” Saturday. Schoolchildren will head to Third Street and Newcomb Avenue several afternoons each week for arts-related programs. The restored auditorium also will serve as a concert venue, starting with an Oct. 2 appearance by the chamber orchestra Sphinx Virtuosi.
The most obvious structural change is the addition of a landing and ramps that allow full access to the building from Newcomb, where the historic entrance has sat photogenic but littleused for decades. A ramp then turns the corner and leads to a spacious covered balcony above a new landscape along Third Street that serves as a secondary entrance and exit. Before, most people came and went through a door that connected the parking lot to the auditorium.
Outdoors, the brick wall that once hemmed in the grounds has been replaced by an open metal fence the after-school programs require for security. The event-friendly space also includes a garden for the children to tend.
The changes inside, by contrast, are barely perceptible. The rear wall of the auditorium was moved forward 10 inches so the bathrooms could be made accessible. The stage was narrowed slightly to insert space to store a portable elevator for performers or speakers in need. Steel supports were added to the auditorium’s wooden balcony, bringing it up to seismic code even though it’s still off-limits to the public.
Work like this is costly. The same goes for the new rear wall, windowless and covered in dark wood siding. The 1888 original needed to be replaced because dry rot had allowed rain to flood the small dressing room below the stage.
These discreet necessities absorbed much of the $5.7 million budget — which, except for grants from the Kaiser Permanente and John & Marcia Goldman foundations, came entirely from public funds. There wasn’t even money left to repaint the exterior, done with a flourish in 2007 but now faded. Or to replace the auditorium’s wagonwheel-like overhead light fixtures — they date to the 1970s and look it, and not in a chic retro way.
From this perspective, the rebirth has a bittersweet tinge. A city like San Francisco, with so much wealth in so many forms, treated the one landmark cultural building in a long-troubled neighborhood as something that could be left to languish.
Politicians made promises. City departments cobbled together grants. Then there would be a hiccup and back to square one.
But here’s the flip side: The Opera House has a new lease on life. It’s probably in better shape that at any time since the 19th century. No structural surprises lurk offstage.
Another upgrade is that the auditorium now is much better equipped to make performances shine. The sound system is new, as is the projection equipment and even the blue velour curtains that drape the stage.
“We have a chance to see this become a real cultural facility,” said Theo Ellington, an Opera House board member who grew up in the neighborhood and still lives there. “When I close my eyes, I see a place programmed year-round — something that reflects the deep roots and history of the Bayview while also bringing in new people,” with events for couples and families several times a week, instead of several times a month as will be the case while getting up to speed.
That sense of possibility exists because of arduous work by believers and bureaucrats. Staffers at the Arts Commission and the Mayor’s Office on Disability found ways to keep the project moving forward. The designers involved — TEF Design and Knapp Architects, with landscape architect Walter Hood taking the lead outdoors — made sure the end result was as pleasing as could be.
“A lot of people fought really hard to make this happen,” said Deborah Frieden, a consultant who worked on the project for more than a decade. “For what we had to work with, we achieved a lot.”
As for the exterior paint job, or the auditorium lighting, or such needed basics as a washing machine and dryer downstairs? They’re ideal for the next round of donors — ones who might finally realize that the Bayview deserves their attention, too.