The restoration of the Balboa Theatre,bordering the Gaslamp Quarter Historic District in San Diego, California, recreates the vaudeville-era theatre and movie house to its original 1924 design, while transforming it into a modern performing arts center that accommodates diverse performance programs, as well as community, corporate, and convention gatherings.
On the surface at least, it is hard to imagine a more incongruous combination of architect and client: the London-based John Pawson, known for his starkly Minimal and elegant temples to material culture, and a community of Cistercian monks whose lives revolve around prayer, study, and physical labor.
Before moving to this surprisingly exposed location in the Old Town area of Pasadena, California, the 10-person advanced-design team, an in-house R&D engine, had been buried deep in Honda’s corporate campus some 25 miles down the freeway, in Torrance.
It’s every architect’s fantasy—getting carte blanche from a client. “It was excellent, and the first time for me,” Gus Wustemann says with evident glee, recalling how a couple contacted him after seeing his work in magazines, and offered complete creative license.