What once was the National Theatre, on the corner of Lindbrook and Gayley avenues, is now only a partial steel skeleton of a building, surrounded by pedestrian canopying that is plastered with posters advertising, among other things, movies that will never be shown at the theater.
In the location of what once was the National Theatre will be a one-story retail building with roof-top parking and solar panels, said a representative from the Los Angeles City Department of Building and Safety.
The project is currently in the demolition stage, a phase that will be finished by the middle of next month, said Mark Perez, the project manager for Specialized Environment Inc., the company that is demolishing the National Theatre.
The company is currently in the process of removing the structural material of the building to the ground level.
Specialized Environmental Inc. will then remove the concrete foundation of the theater.
Prior to the removal of the structural material, when the building was covered with white tenting, the company completed the environmental removal of asbestos ““ the white tent was there to contain the asbestos.
The development firm in charge of the project, Simms Commercial Development, declined to comment, but did mention that the building would be LEED certified silver.
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Program was started by the United States Green Building Council.
The program is a “rating system for developing high-performance and sustainable buildings,” according to the council’s Web site. The system has four levels: certified, silver, gold and platinum.
The National Theatre opened on March 27, 1970, with the premiere of “The Boys in the Band.”
The theater also premiered many other films, most notably “The Exorcist” in 1973, which played for six months before being put on general release, and the “Indiana Jones” trilogy.
The National Theatre was the last single-screen theater palace to be built in the United States, said Charles Fisher, a member of Friends of the National Theatre and a professional historian.
In an effort to save the movie theater, Fisher wrote a proposal to have the theater declared a historical monument, but his bid was denied by the Cultural Heritage Commission.
Fisher said he believes the bid was denied in part because the commission usually only certifies buildings that were built at least 50 years ago.
He said he believes the National Theatre should have been an exception because it was such a unique building.
Howard Suber, a professor at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, said that the advent of multiplex theaters contributed to the closing and demolition of the National Theatre.
“The business has become a multiplex business. The time for single screen theaters has come and gone,” said Suber.
Fisher said that with multiplex theaters as opposed to single-screen theaters, one loses the movie-going experience.
Suber said that Westwood is no longer an area that attracts as many moviegoers as it once did.
“(The National is) not a great loss; its time has come and gone. Westwood is not a prime movie-going area” Suber said.
Peter Dobson, CEO of Mann Theatres, which leased the theater during the majority of its time in Westwood, said that the movie business in Westwood is not what it was 10 to 15 years ago.
Dobson also commented on why Mann decided to not continue its lease of the National Theatre.
“Business had gone down at that theater. It wouldn’t have been financially viable,” Dobson said.
Mann still operates three other theaters in Westwood: the Village, the Festival and the Bruin.
Fisher said he believes that one of the reasons the National Theatre was not doing well was because it was not playing films for which it was designed. He said that the single-screen theater was best suited for “epic films … that were designed to impress.”