St. Louis' Kiel Opera House to be restored, reopened

[LeannaM]

Thought some of you preservationists may enjoy this video:
http://www.fox2now.com/ktvi-kiel-opera-house-reopen-042009-video,0,6612383.worldnowvideo

Some more info on it. http://www.builtstlouis.net/opera.html
http://www.eco-absence.org/stl/kiel/

Blues owner Dave Checketts owns it and he's spending $40-$60 million to restore it. It was built in 1934. It previously had an auditorium, but when Scottrade Center was built, the Auditorium was demolished. As part of the deal to demolish the Auditorium, the Opera House was supposed to have been been restored (this was 1990). That didn't happen.

Looks like the target date for the Kiel Opera House is December 2010. There's this theater Downtown and also the Roberts Orpheum Theater.

What a beautiful building. I'm excited to see it restored.

[Gistok]

Thanks for the info and pics... are there any pics of the interior?

This opera house has a very grand and classic exterior (reminds me a little of the San Francisco Opera House).

The Detroit Opera House (former Capitol Theatre) although it does have Corinthian columns on both the white terra cotta Broadway side and the red brick Madison side.... is not as grand from the exterior (since it was built as a Vaudeville House)... as many older opera houses.

But it makes up for that in the opulent 3 story grand foyer and 6 story Italian Renaissance auditorium, which catches most first time visitors by surprise, due to the understated exterior.

Sadly many of St. Louis's downtown theatres have been pounded to rubble... such as the Art Deco/French Renaissance hybrid... the 3009 seat Ambassador Theatre.

At least they saved the 3,600 seat St. Louis Theatre, now known as Powell Hall, the home of the St. Louis Symphony. This was one of the countries earliest theatre renovations as a performing arts center, back in the 1960's.

And also the 4,500 seat St. Louis Fox theatre (a near twin of the Detroit Fox) was saved, although its' restoration was not as extensive as the Detroit Fox (they didn't have as deep pockets as the Ilitch's did).