Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts

VIPS Gather to Sign the Steel Beam Topping the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts

With the last steel beam signed and set into place at the Goldsmith Theater Nov. 8, the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts completed the structure of the new arts center that is scheduled to open in Beverly Hills in the fall of 2013.

There to autograph the beam and celebrate the occasion were the board of governors, founding donors and the team from MATT Construction, to whom Lou Moore, Annenberg executive director, dedicated the occasion.

The arts center will combine the new 500-seat contemporary Goldsmith Theater with the restored Beverly Hills Post Office. When completed, the historic post office – built in 1933 in distinctive Italian Renaissance Revival style – will house a 150-seat Studio Theater, theater school, café and gift shop, along with production services.

Constructed under the leadership of the legendary political humorist Will Rogers, at the time the city’s Mayor, the post office building closed in the 1990s.

Designer Zoltan Pali of SPF Architects is the center’s designer. In addition to private residences and commercial buildings, the firm’s other projects have included the Zhuhai Opera House in Guangdong Province China, the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt, the Getty Villa Museum in Malibu and other acclaimed arts institutions.

Among others attending were Bram Goldsmith, Matt Evans of Matt Construction, Beverly Hills Police Chief David Snowden, Hermann Elger and Charles Black of the Montage Hotel, Ariela Shani of Neiman Marcus, plus John Martens, Donanne and Ali Kasikci, Vicki Reynolds, Luanne Wells, Paula Kent Meehan, Richard Rosenzweig, David Phoenix, Eunice David and Tobey Cotsen-Victor.

01 vicki reynolds, bram goldsmith, lou moore, luanne wells, paula kent meehan-001

Although the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts hasn’t yet opened in its new home, exhibitions began last year with Teatro alla Moda. A breathtaking display of theatrical costumes by the world’s most renowned Italian designers, the show was so popular that the exhibition was extended twice.

Top photo: Tobey Cotsen Victor was among VIPs at the beam-signing celebration at the soon-to-be Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills

Bottom photo: From left, Vicki Reynolds, Bram Goldsmith, Lou Moore, Luanne Wells and Paula Kent Meehan at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in progress

All photos on this page and in the picture gallery below by Vince Bucci for the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills

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