Preservation Alert: Cal Theatre in Berkeley
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The ADSC needs your help, on or before Thursday, May 5th!
We need voices of support at a City of Berkeley online meeting to review the ADSC’s application to landmark the California Theatre at 2113 Kittredge Street off Shattuck Avenue. The long-time owners of the building have decided to sell the theatre and stated at the last hearing of the Landmarks Preservation Commission that they plan to turn it into housing, while possibly retaining the Art Deco façade and the marquee.
People are encouraged to speak up about their love of the theatre and its design. In addition, we think it is important to also talk about the need for the theatre to remain as a much-needed cultural destination in downtown Berkeley, not just as a façade for an apartment or condo building. Please keep your remarks to one to two minutes max. You do not need to be a resident of Berkeley to speak up.
Historic movie theaters are in peril (including the nearby Shattuck Cinemas, now under threat of demolition). Once these institutions are gone, they are gone forever.
A striking example of Art Deco in downtown Berkeley, the California Theatre was built in 1914 and modernized in Art Deco style, complete with zigzags and frozen fountains, in 1929-30. An angled marquee and bold neon sign, added in 1952, shows the building’s transition between Art Deco/Streamline Moderne into Mid-Century Modernism. The theatre is also part of a trio of superb Art Deco buildings around Kittredge and Shattuck avenues downtown, including the Berkeley Public Library (1930, Berkeley City Landmark #56) and the United Artists Theatres (1932, same architect as the 1930 remodel of the Cal Theatre, Clifford Balch).
This handsome, well-preserved theatre has been under threat since October, 2021, when its owners declined to renew the theatre operators’ lease. The ADSC quickly went into action, circulating a petition among Berkeley residents to support a Landmark application, which our Preservation Director Therese Poletti filed with the City of Berkeley early this year.
(The Cal has a fascinating history! Read the complete Landmark application here.)
The ADSC has been partnering with a widely-supported community group, Friends of the California, to preserve this theatre, not only as an architectural object but as a much needed cultural resource. Please visit their website, which has a wealth of information and resources.
The Landmarks Preservation Commission hearing on our application will be at 7pm, Thursday, May 5th.
Please attend if you can! This is the Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81581770114#success (To join by phone: dial +1 669 900 6833 and enter Meeting ID: 815 8177 0114)
Email a letter of your support, c/o LPC Secretary Fatema Crane, fcrane@cityofberkeley.info. Include address: Cal Theatre, 2113 Kittredge St.
Thank you!
The Art Deco Society of California Preservation Committee