Structure Type: built works - performing arts structures - opera houses

Designers: Brown and Lansburgh, Associated Architects (firm); Arthur Brown Jr. (architect); Gustave Albert Lansburgh (architect)

Dates: constructed 1932

Building History

The War Memorial Opera House was part of the San Francisco Civic Center complex, masterplanned by Bakewell and Brown following an national architectural competition in 1912. The development of the Civic Center, and the erection of a new and grandiose City Hall (by Bakewell and Brown,1915), was meant to coincide with the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition, signalling to the world San Francisco's rebirth.

Building Notes

The structural engineer, Michael Pregnoff (1900-1996), has been credited with structural engineering work on the War Memorial Opera House. (See Structural Engineers Association of Northern California, "Michael Pregnoff," accessed 04/24/2020.)

PCAD id: 6773