Structure Type: [unspecified]
Designers: Johnson, William Templeton, Architect (firm); Weeks and Day, Architects (firm); William Peyton Day (structural engineer); William Templeton Johnson (architect); Charles Peter Weeks (architect)
Dates: constructed 1928-1929
4 stories, total floor area: 75,000 sq. ft.
The architect William Templeton Johnson (1877-1957) designed this mixed-use office and retail building, that occupied an entire city block bounded by A Street on the north, B (south), 7th Avenue (west) and 8th Avenue (east). The Gildred Brothers, Philip L., Sr., (1889-1974) and Theodore (1901-1967) financed construction of this complex that included offices, a parking garage, retail space and a large movie palace, the $2.5 million San Diego Fox Theatre. A Montgomery Wards Department Store occupied a large space in the Fox Building for many years. Johnson worked with the Bay Area architectural firm of Weeks and Day, which focused on the design of the theatre interior. The William Simpson Construction Company served as the building's general contractor.
Demolished; the Fox Building was torn down in 1984 to make way for the Symphony Towers development that was completed for the San Diego Symphony Orchestra (SDSO) and the developer Charlton Raynd. Only the Fox Theatre was retained, for use as the SDSO's Copley Symphony Hall. It was sandwiched between a new 34-story office skyscraper, a 27-story Sheraton Suites Hotel and underneath a five-story parking garage and one-story lobby that connected the towers.
PCAD id: 17940