W hile this building would fit in out in a suburban office park, it is the downtown Music Center location that makes it special.
The Ahmanson Theater gleams white marble and glitters blue glass in the heart of the city. Situated with two other large performing arts centers on an elevated plaza, the sheer scale of the project makes it a space apart from the city. Evoking the ever-hopeful clean white future promised by so much west coast architecture of its era, this building could have played the backdrop to an episode or two of Buck Rogers while still serving its primary function.
Though it shares the interior of the colonnade with the Mark Taper Forum, the Ahmanson Theater seems more at home here. It's right angles and reflective glass at once paying homage and then extending the architecture around it.
The building was named for Robert H. Ahmanson, a local philanthropist who died in 2007 at the age of 80.
Seating capacity: 1,600-2,100
March 9, 1962: Construction begins.
April 12, 1967: This building opens to the public.
