Alamo Drafthouse New Mission Cinema
2550 Mission Street,
San Francisco,
CA
94110
2550 Mission Street,
San Francisco,
CA
94110
18 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 50 of 79 comments
2 new photos added today – one of the marquee and blade shrouded in netting and with a banner claiming a 2015 opening and the other taken from the corner of 22nd and Mission showing the changing landscape in the Mission.
Per Alamo’s facebook page dated May 7, 2014:
Sorry to have been dormant on this page for so long. Permitting has taken WAY longer than expected but we are almost through the process and renovation should begin in earnest very soon. We are 100% committed to restoring and opening this… space. Stay tuned for more info and details soon! The Alamo Drafthouse IS coming to the Mission.
Anyone know the status on the restoration, or have plans stalled?
Direct link to Alamo website about this theater here.
http://books.google.com/books?id=1qEbAQAAMAAJ&dq=cove%20lighting%20theater&pg=PA1990#v=onepage&q&f=false
Yes the big neon sign will come to life. I beleive the tubes are a bright red/orange neon. The paint will be a rustic red Southwest look.
From the Alamo Drafthouse page for San Francisco. Pictures of the interior are at the link at the end of the last sentence.
http://drafthouse.com/blog/entry/new_mission_theater_approved_for_renovation
Any idea if the neon will be restored?
I have talked to Tim League of Drafthouse Cinemas. For the large downstairs theatre he may put in a semi large curved screen with curtains and a kick ass stereo sound surround system. I told him to contact Century/Cinemark as in Pleasant Hill CA they have a large D-150 screen track that will go up in dust in a few months when they turn the wreckers ball on this classic dome theatre. Tim also knows about showmanship and the use of color lights in the new theatres coming at the New Mission. The Castro Theatre SF will have some major competion and food when this new theatre opens in about a year. You won’t find the New Mission Theatre SF closed on Mondays & Tuesdays like the Castro Theatre is now. The Mission plans to run retro, first run and some 70mm real film plus digital movies and grindhouse festivals and great trailers. Good luck to Tim and the New Mission San Francisco CA. Wait till the noisy movie people in SF find out about the Drafthouse policy for cell phones and tweets in the theatre when a movie is on. This area of Mission St in SF is making a big comback.
Looks like the planning commission has given its OK for the Alamo Drafthouse 5 plex + condos next door.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/New-Mission-Theater-renovation-OKd-4185093.php
Another SF theater saved. The Strand on Market St also was saved in 2012 by ACT. After reading some of the above comments about how hard it is to restore/save movie theaters in SF (and it is) I think it is worth mentioning that film theaters are hard to save/restore everywhere, not just SF. The “closed” “demolished” list on Cinema Treasures is a testament to that. BTW the “Divisadero” mentioned above is the Harding Theater.
Snarky, hdtv267? Hardly. Ask anyone who has been associated with the San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Association just how difficult it is to preserve theaters in San Francisco. It is never easy in any large city, but it is especially so in SF. One the main purposes of this site is to contribute to and publicize preservation efforts and the related challenges. The recent histories of the efforts to preserve the Divisadero, the Metro, and the Coronet are all testaments to the difficulty of advancing theater preservation in this great city.
Probably? Nay, certainly. Rehabilitation, restoration, and construction projects can take years in SF. The process is extensively politicized, and any project is reviewed by an incredible array of governmental and civic groups.
Not surprising at all. San Francisco is probably extremely difficult to build in, let alone an historic building.
Colonial Revival in the style field should be Spanish Colonial Revival, which was the original style before Timothy Pflueger’s Deco remodeling job.
Also, I’ve noticed that the auditorium photo captioned “Interior of the New Mission Theater” in the Moving Picture World article I linked to in my previous comment depicts a different auditorium than the photo captioned “Interior of Theatre” in this article in The Music Trade Review published the same year. I don’t know for sure which magazine got the wrong photo, but I suspect it was The Moving Picture World. Its item on the New Mission was part of a section that featured two other new houses, which would be more likely to lead to error than the stand-alone item in Music Trade. The MPW photo might actually have depicted the Lorin Theatre in Berkeley.
There’s a fairly long article about the New Mission Theatre on pages 1990-1991 of the September 23, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World. Scan at Google Books.
Well, you know for sure they’re not taking it down!
Are they going to restore the unique verticle sign and the neon along with it?
I have no doubt Alamo will do an excellent job on the preservation end – I personally think The Ritz in Austin is first rate (although it was probably an empty shell when they got to it) – but it’s a classy looking joint. It’s refreshing to have a company run by movie fans with excellent tastes and instincts – verses MBAs who manage every complex with a once size-fits all attitude.
A few July 2012 photos can be seen here, here and here.
Ah, main auditorium screen to be preserved- http://www.friendsof1800.org/NEWMISSION/newmission.html Alamo’s founder, Tim League, describes the plan envisioned in the Alamo blog on Thurssday, February 16:
“Even though our plan is to subdivide the balconies into small boutique theaters, we will be doing it in such a way as to pres rve nearly all of the amazing architectural details of the space. We would still preserve the massive downstairs screen and transform that space into a potential premiere venue with state of the art sound and picture. We have been working hand-in-hand with the both historic and neighborhood groups to make sure that our restoration plans meet with their approval. The great news is that the theater interior is largely in good shape. A large percentage of the interior details have been preserved and even most of the light fixtures are intact.”
What happens to the ornate auditorium seen in article 2? does all that get covered up or gutted so 5 screens emerge?
Alamo Drafthouse confirms that it plans to convert the New Mission into one of their locations:
View article 1
View Article 2
Direct link to Towleroad website and the Bonnie Raitt video.
An article about the Fotoplayer pipe organ installed in the New Mission Theatre can be seen in this PDF file of a page from the August 12, 1916, issue of The Music Trade Review. There are two small photos of the theater, showing the front and the auditorium. The auditorium photo shows the house before the balcony was added in 1918. American Photo Player Co., makers of the Fotoplayer organ, were based in Berkeley, California.
Looks like the Alamo Drafthouse chain is taking over the New Mission — here is Alamo owner Tim League
http://drafthouse.com/blog/entry/an_alamo_in_san_francisco