The Laguna Beach Planning Commission recently approved plans to renovate the long shuttered South Coast Theatre. Now slated for a late 2021 reopening, the plan calls for a partial repurposing to a film, live theater, meeting, and electric car showroom space. The current 653 seat twin configuration will be returned to a single auditorium, but with a modest 127 seats. Additional alterations will include converting the second-floor projection booth and storage areas into conference rooms, skylights, an elevator, and redesign of the lobby. While the original stage, proscenium, and star shaped auditorium lighting fixture will be restored, the Laguna Beach Historical Preservation Coalition has voiced objections that the project doesn’t maintain enough of the theatre’s historical elements, stating “What is proposed is too much for a building whose historic significance is intimately connected to its history as Laguna’s main and, for many decades, only movie theater and to its association with a family whose business was bringing the movies to Laguna.”
The project will be carried out by Rivian, an Irvine based electric car manufacturer (hence the inclusion of a two-vehicle showroom in the reconfigured lobby). Rivian has stated the theatre will host up to two movie screenings a week and be available for quarterly guest speaker/live events. However, the bulk of the theatre’s planned usage appears to be oriented around the company’s business activities.
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