Wiltern Theatre
A blue-green tower marks the corner where Wilshire meets Western. Behind its terra-cotta skin hides one of America’s great Art Deco theatres.
At a glance
The Wiltern Theatre is the centrepiece of the Pellissier Building, a 1931 Art Deco complex at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue in Los Angeles, designed by the firm Morgan, Walls & Clements with Stiles O. Clements as principal designer. Clad in a striking blue-green glazed terra-cotta, the tower and theatre take their name from the two streets they join. After narrowly escaping demolition, the theatre was restored and now operates as a concert venue.
Key facts
- Architects: Morgan, Walls & Clements (Stiles O. Clements)
- Completed: 1931
- Cladding: blue-green glazed terra-cotta
- Original use: office tower with a 2,000-plus-seat theatre
- Status: National Register of Historic Places; concert venue
History
The complex was built for the businessman Germain Pellissier as a twelve-storey office tower wrapped around a large theatre, opened in 1931 as the Warner Brothers Western Theatre. It soon took the name Wiltern, a contraction of Wilshire and Western.
By the 1970s the theatre had closed and faced demolition. A public campaign saved it, and a restoration in the 1980s returned the auditorium and reopened it as a live-music venue. The terra-cotta exterior was conserved as one of the boldest pieces of Art Deco colour in the city.
What you see
The building turns the street corner with a stepped tower, every surface sheathed in the same vivid blue-green clay. Vertical ribs and zigzag ornament drive the eye upward, and a marquee wraps the base where the theatre entrance sits.
Inside, the auditorium is a fantasy of sunburst ceilings and stylised relief, the kind of total Art Deco interior that early cinema palaces made their signature. The lobby and house were rebuilt to evoke their 1931 splendour.
Practical information
- Function: live-music and concert venue; interior seen at events
- Setting: Wilshire Boulevard at Western Avenue, Koreatown
- Time needed: 20–30 minutes for the exterior
Getting there
The Wiltern sits directly above the Metro rail Wilshire/Western station, making it one of the easiest Los Angeles landmarks to reach without a car. It is a short ride west of downtown.
Nearby
- Bullocks Wilshire, further west along Wilshire Boulevard
- Eastern Columbia Building, downtown Los Angeles
- Los Angeles — Eames, Schindler, Neutra and the California Case Study (CHO city guide)
Sources
- Los Angeles Conservancy, Wiltern Theatre / Pellissier Building (laconservancy.org)
- National Register of Historic Places listing
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Art Deco”
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