The recent outpouring of passionate support for revitalization of Santa Monica’s Civic Auditorium—not just as a historic building but as a community asset—makes it clear that people living in Santa Monica have not given up on the potential for this iconic site despite years of neglect and closure. The motive is in the name. To be civic minded is to relate to a city, town, country or to the people who live there.

Today the Civic Auditorium is an endangered building in a precarious situation, despite its landmark status. Welton Becket’s innovative mid-century modern design retains a very high degree of historic authenticity, but the structure is seismically deficient and systems which have been neglected since the building’s heyday need to be modernized. In other words, the Civic Auditorium is currently neither safe nor practical. Revitalization is critical.

Click here to visit our new webpage dedicated to the Civic Auditorium for more information, including the first installment of a comprehensive history and exploration of the site's complex historic and cultural significance.