Exposition (Civic) Auditorium - San Francisco Civic Center - San Francisco, CA
Posted by: 
saopaulo1
N 37° 46.705 W 122° 25.055
10S E 551287 N 4181389
The Exposition Auditorium is now known as the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium.
Waymark Code: WMRHAY
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 06/21/2016
Views: 9
"Exposition Auditorium (99 Grove Street) fills the block bounded by Grove, Larkin, Hayes, and Polk Streets and faces the Civic Center Plaza from the south across Grove. Its four stories are erected on a steel frame clad in gray granite on the main facade and brick on the sides and rear. The Auditorium is designed in the Beaux Arts style with elements of both the French and Italian Renaissance. The main facade is symmetrically arranged with a dominant central feature flanked by advancing pavilions and receding wings. The 2-story base is rusticated. The superstructure above contains pedimented windows, except in the central feature where three large arches reach through both tiers. A cornice caps the superstructure and a false attic rises above it over the three central planes. The three high arches in the central feature rise between four piers in the base level, and four pairs of engaged Doric columns which stand on the piers in the superstructure. The rusticated base is divided by a long wooden marquee covered with copper sheeting. The rusticated bases of the projecting pavilions on either side of the central feature contain large showcase windows in the ground floor with pairs of small windows above them. The cornice of the base sits on two pairs of brackets which frame the windows of the second floor beneath it, and, at the same time, serves as a base for two pairs of free-standing Doric columns in the superstructure. Each pair of columns extends through the heavy cornice of the fourth floor with festooned urns on granite bases. The receding wings on the ground level contain plainly framed doors that match the showcase windows in the adjacent piers. Windows in the third floor have rounded pediments and balustraded balconies on brackets. The sides and rear of the Auditorium are brick except for granite angle features on Polk and Larkin, around the corner from the main facade. The rear facade contains five planes reflecting those of the front. The central feature contains two high service doors. A remodeling of the building in 1964 resulted in minor exterior alterations, including a slight extension of the westernmost pier in the central feature of the main facade to accommodate the principal escalator to Brooks Hall, the underground exhibition hall under the Civic Center Plaza; and extension of the projecting pavilions on the rear toward the sides. The principal auditorium is reached through entrances at the base of the high arches, and two secondary halls through doorways in the receding wings. Seating capacity is 7,800 in the large auditorium and 900 in the side halls. Nineteen smaller conference rooms each hold 30 to 125 people." (
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