Pacific Terrace Theater, Long Beach, Calif., 1978
1978
Gibbs and Gibbs Architecture
The Terrace Theater is a 3,000-seat performance venue located along the Long Beach coastline. Designed by Hug and Donald Gibbs of the firm Gibbs and Gibbs, the theater combines seating in the traditional format of loge, orchestra and balcony within a thoroughly Late Modernist structure. The building was part of the larger expansion and revitalization of Long Beach’s Civic Center headed by Gibbs and Gibbs that included buildings by Allied Architects, Wing and Wing, Homolka and Associates, and Killingsworth, Brady, and Associates.
Hugh Gibbs started the firm in Long Beach in the 1930s and his son, Don, a USC graduate, joined in 1961. Don Gibbs’ interest in color theory and geometric abstraction is everywhere in evidence in the theater, and Thom captures it magnificently. Most of Thom’s photographs are in color, emphasizing vast ginger carpets and the warm glow of interior lighting on a performance night. Designed as a modern interpretation of a Classical pavilion with glazed walls on all four sides, the building’s simple geometries are broken up by the dynamic shifting planes of exterior walkways and plazas. Inside, Thom emphasizes the grand floating staircase as it spirals upward through the lobby. An occasional figure passes underneath or leans contemplatively over a railing.
References:
“Long Beach Civic Center,” Long Beach Heritage, web.