ALTOS THEATER

A DOWNTOWN THEATER FOR LOS ALTOS

For the last 15 years, there has been an effort to build a new theater in downtown Los Altos to replace the aging Bus Barn Theater located next to the new Community Center at the Civic Center. The new theater would be located on one of the city parking lots on 3rd Street between San Antonio Road and Main Street.

In 2014, Elevation was asked to do a design “charette” to come up with a concept for the project. In one day, we interviewed stakeholders, prepared a program, walked the site, and sketched ideas for a versatile live theater which could be used as a movie theater and for community lectures and other events. The project soon after went dormant.

In 2021, we were asked again, this time to prepare a design that was more “real” than the 2014 version. With a more developed program and a site across 3rd Street from the earlier design, we created the Altos Theater. The building featured a plaza in the front, lighted vitrines on a curved “scrim” wall, a large canopy with pin-mounted letters, a lobby sheathed in glass as an evening ‘lantern’ and a 190-seat auditorium with all of the necessary support spaces.

As the price continues to escalate, we hope that one day we will be asked to design the Altos Theater again, but then, it will include taking the project all the way to completion.