The Mabel Shaw Bridges Music Auditorium, more commonly known as Bridges Auditorium or Big Bridges (to distinguish it from nearby Bridges Hall of Music, known as Little Bridges), is a 2,500-seat

auditorium An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theaters, the number of auditoriums is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoriums can be found in entertainment venues, community halls, and t ...

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalists ...

Claremont, California Claremont () is a suburban city in eastern Los Angeles County, California, United States, east of Los Angeles. It lies in the Pomona Valley at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census it had ...

, United States. It was designed by

William Templeton Johnson William Templeton Johnson (1877 – 1957) was a notable San Diego architect. He was a fellow to the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1939. Johnson is known for his Spanish Revival buildings, all in San Diego unless otherwise noted: * L ...

and opened in 1932. It hosts a variety of performances for the college and outside groups.

History

The auditorium was built as a joint project of the

Claremont Colleges The Claremont Colleges (known colloquially as the 7Cs) are a consortium of seven private university, private institutions of higher education located in Claremont, California, United States. They comprise five undergraduate colleges (the 5Cs)� ...

consortium. It was sponsored by Appleton and Amelia (nee Timken) Bridges, the parents of Mabel Shaw Bridges, a student in Pomona's class of 1908 who died of illness in her junior year, and H.H. Timken, president of the

Timken Roller Bearing Company The Timken Roller Bearing Company was one of the first to introduce roller bearings for railroad cars. Railroad cars owned and operated by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to ...

. From its completion until the opening of the

Dorothy Chandler Pavilion The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion is one of the halls in the Los Angeles Music Center, which is one of the largest performing arts centers in the United States. The Music Center's other halls include the Mark Taper Forum, Ahmanson Theatre, and Walt ...

in 1964, it was arguably the premier destination of choice for prominent visitors to

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

. It was also the largest collegiate auditorium on the West Coast, with a capacity nearly twice that of Pomona and equal to that of the city of Claremont. The

Los Angeles Philharmonic The Los Angeles Philharmonic (LA Phil) is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. The orchestra holds a regular concert season from October until June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from ...

frequently performed there. The auditorium was renovated from 1975 to 1977 for

seismic retrofitting Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes (or generally, quakes) and the generation and propagation of elastic w ...

and cosmetic repairs. In 2007, control was transferred from the consortium to Pomona individually. Pomona's 2015 master plan classifies Big Bridges as a "building notable for establishing the distinctive context" of the college, and describes it as a symbol of the college's regional civic engagement. A 2015

environmental impact report An environmental impact statement (EIS), under United States environmental law, is a document required by the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for certain actions "significantly affecting the quality of the human environment". An EIS ...

from the college identifies it as eligible for listing on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

, although the college has not yet applied for it to be listed. John Neiuber, writing for the ''

Claremont Courier The ''Claremont Courier'' is a community newspaper based in Claremont, California, United States. It is widely regarded as the city's newspaper of record, and is often cited by other news outlets covering the city. It publishes an annual almana ...

'' in 2017, expressed surprise it is not listed.

Architecture

Big Bridges is the primary visual anchor point for the east side of Marston Quadrangle, the center of Pomona's campus. It was constructed in a

Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range of ...

style modeled after northern Italy, and incorporates

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

elements. It has large

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...

s on its front and sides with arched columns, and a large formally adorned

foyer A lobby is a room in a building used for entry from the outside. Sometimes referred to as a foyer, entryway, reception area or entrance hall, it is often a large room or complex of rooms (in a theatre, opera house, concert hall, showroom, cine ...

inside the main entrance. The building's

frieze In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...

features the names of five eminent composers; it was the target of a famous 1975 prank in which the one for

Frédéric Chopin Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 181017 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period who wrote primarily for Piano solo, solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown ...

was replaced with one honoring

Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American guitarist, composer, and bandleader. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestra ...

. The auditorium has a capacity of 2,494 people, including a 500-seat

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is unsupported at one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cantilev ...

ed balcony. There are no supporting columns, allowing all seats to have unobstructed views of the

proscenium A proscenium (, ) is the virtual vertical plane of space in a theatre, usually surrounded on the top and sides by a physical proscenium arch (whether or not truly "arched") and on the bottom by the stage floor itself, which serves as the frame ...

. The basement has a historical exhibit.

Ceiling

A mural by Italian-American artist John B. Smeraldi covers the parabolic domed ceiling of the auditorium. It depicts a variety of

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The first constellati ...

s in

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

and

gold leaf upA gold nugget of 5 mm (0.2 in) in diameter (bottom) can be expanded through hammering into a gold foil of about 0.5 m2 (5.4 sq ft). The Japan.html" ;"title="Toi gold mine museum, Japan">Toi gold mine museum, Japan. Gold leaf is gold that has ...

against a pale blue background.

Usage

Pomona College class of 2020 orientation in Bridges Auditorium

Big Bridges hosts a variety of events and performances for the college, including orientation sessions, concerts, and guest speaker lectures. The college also rents the auditorium to outside groups. A number of films and television shows have used the auditorium as a set.

References

External links

* {{county of Los Angeles Pomona College Renaissance Revival architecture in California Art Deco architecture in California Music venues in California University and college buildings completed in 1931 Claremont, California Music venues completed in 1931 Auditoriums in the United States