The Shrine Auditorium is a landmark large-event venue in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
, California. It is also the headquarters of the Al Malaikah Temple, a division of the
Shriners
Shriners International, formally known as the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (AAONMS), is an American Masonic body, Masonic society. Founded in 1872 in New York City, it is headquartered in Tampa, Florida, and has over ...
. It was designated a
Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument
Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments are sites which have been designated by the Los Angeles, California, Cultural Heritage Commission as worthy of preservation based on architectural, historic and cultural criteria.
History
The Historic-Cul ...
(No. 139) in 1975, and was added to 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 ...
in 1987.
History
Opened in 1926, the current Shrine Auditorium replaced an earlier 1906 Al Malaikah Temple which had been destroyed by a fire on January 11, 1920.
The fire gutted the structure in just 30 minutes, and nearly killed six firefighters in the process.
In the late 1960s, the Shrine was referred to as "The Pinnacle" by the audiences of rock concerts.
In 2002, the auditorium underwent a $15 million renovation that upgraded the stage with state-of-the-art lighting and rigging systems, and included new roofing and air conditioning for both the Auditorium and Expo Center, modernized concession stands, additional restrooms, repainting of the Expo Center, and a new performance plaza and parking garage. The entire complex follows a Moroccan architectural motif.
Architect and engineer (1922) (14595001970).jpg, The old Shrine Auditorium, 1905.
OldShrineAuditorium-1910.jpg, The old Shrine Auditorium, 1910.
Shrine Auditorium (254834418).jpg, The Shrine Auditorium in 1990, before the 2002 renovations.
Building
The new auditorium was designed in the
Moorish Revival style by San Francisco-based theater architect
G. Albert Lansburgh, with local architects
John C. Austin and A. M. Edelman associated. When built, the auditorium could hold 1,200 people on stage and seat an audience of 6,442. An engineer who consulted on the project said that the steel
truss
A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as Beam (structure), beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure.
In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so ...
supporting the balcony was the largest ever constructed.
The Shrine Auditorium seats approximately 6,300 people (reduced during the 2002 renovation from the original 6,700 capacity) and has a stage wide and deep.
The Auditorium features two boxes above the orchestra level holding 40 people each and seven
loges on the balcony holding between 36 and 47 seats each (total capacity of the loges: 274). Of the remaining seats, 2,964 are on the orchestra level and 2,982 on the balcony level.
Adjacent to the Auditorium is the Shrine Exposition Hall. This is a multi-purpose event facility. It features of exhibit and meeting space—34,000 in the main level and 20,000 in an open mezzanine. The Exposition Hall has a capacity of 5,000 patrons. Trade shows, banquets, conventions and electronic music festivals, among other events, have been held there.
Notable events
The Shrine Auditorium has hosted a number of events, mainly for entertainment:
See also
*
List of convention centers in the United States
This is a list of convention centers in the United States by U.S. state, state or insular area.
By state Alabama
*Bald Rock Lodge (Cheaha State Park)
*Bessemer Civic Center
*Birmingham–Jefferson Convention Complex
*Bryant Convention Cente ...
*
List of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments in South Los Angeles
*
List of Registered Historic Places in Los Angeles
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places in the city of Los Angeles. (For those in the rest of Los Angeles County, refer to National Register of Historic Places listings in Los Angeles County, California.)
Current listings
' ...
*
Bridges Auditorium
*
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 ...
References
External links
Shrine LA! Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall Official Site*
Image of Stevie Wonder and Patti LaBelle performing at the Shrine Auditorium, 1978.Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections,
Charles E. Young Research Library
The Charles E. Young Research Library is one of the largest libraries on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles in Westwood, Los Angeles, California. It initially opened in 1964, and a second phase of construction was completed ...
,
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...
.
{{Authority control
Concert halls in California
Convention centers in California
Basketball venues in Los Angeles
Theatres in Los Angeles
Music venues in Los Angeles
Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments
Masonic buildings in California
Masonic buildings completed in 1925
Event venues established in 1925
Theatres on the National Register of Historic Places in Los Angeles
Shriners
University Park, Los Angeles
USC Trojans basketball venues
Moorish Revival architecture in California
Event venues on the National Register of Historic Places in California
1926 establishments in California