Loma Theater BookStar

In 1989, Alamo Architects was tapped to bring our high energy brand of retail design to the transformation of an abandoned movie house into a trendsetting book superstore. Centrally located on the main shopping street in San Diego’s affluent Point Loma neighborhood, this 1939 art moderne theater had stood dark for many years. Our clients saw great potential for a memorable store location in the decaying structure. Its exuberant cove-lit interiors and soaring outdoor marquee lent a buoyant spirit to the building. A state-of-the-art bookstore proved to be the perfect fit, satisfying local preservationists and becoming a commercially successful retail venture at the same time.

Visual references were drawn from sources related to the building’s moment in time and place, which helped to point the way to an appropriate adaptive re-use: the original theater itself (the fantasy carpet was milled to match a pristine swatch of the original Axminster, found on a walled-in closet floor during demolition); the iconic exhibition architecture of the New York World’s World's Fair of 1939; and the ever-present rolling Pacific surf.

The re-lamping of the dark theater facade was a particularly satisfying feature of this adaptive reuse. Switched on with dramatic fanfare on grand opening night, the giant neon marquee once again dominated the landscape, reclaiming its place on the street. Seeing the theater come “back to life” in this very visible way created tremendous buzz for the retailer, and gave the neighborhood a tangible morale boost.

Client> Bookstop, Inc.
Construction Cost> $650,000
Completion> February 1990