Lisner Auditorium

Lisner Auditorium

Faulkner & Kingsbury
Website
www.lisner.org
Lisner Auditorium
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Show map of Central Washington, D.C. Show map of the District of Columbia Show map of the United States
Coordinates	38°53′57.57″N 77°2′49.13″W / 38.8993250°N 77.0469806°W / 38.8993250; -77.0469806
Architectural style	Stripped Classicism
NRHP reference No.	90001548[2]
Designated	October 25, 1990

Lisner Auditorium is a performance venue sited on the

The auditorium played a key role in desegregation at George Washington University and in Washington, D.C.; its 1946 grand opening became a city-wide target for the desegregation of the city's theaters and a catalyst for George Washington students calling on the university to admit African American students.^[4] The auditorium seats 1,350^[5] and is the home of the Washington Concert Opera.

Lisner Auditorium extends the modernist ethos favored by its architect,

According to the National Register of Historic Places registration form, Lisner Auditorium's stripped classicism "expresses its modern roots in the basic geometric form of a cube." The structure is "sheathed in a tight skin of light colored limestone"; the "alternating limestone courses of square and rectangular blocks and the precise placement of joints present a pleasing pattern to the stonework." The "projecting box-like portico offers the only relief to the severe geometrical form of the building," with its "scale and abstracted columns echo[ing] classical qualities." Doors, grates, and lighting features of "loosely" Art Deco origin provide minimal ornamentation, a theme continued on the interior. Overall, "its modern and formal character are skillfully manipulated to speak [to] the building's function as a prominent center for the performing arts in Washington." Lisner Auditorium's resonance with the 1938 and 1939 First Medal winners of the Beaux Arts Institute's Paris Prize Competitions speaks to its communication with international movements in architecture at the time.^[3]

Construction of Lisner Auditorium was initially funded by Abram Lisner, a German-born owner of Washington's Palais Royale department store.^[8] Additional funding for the construction project was provided by the George Washington Memorial Association and the Dimock Estate.

The building was designed by

Lisner Auditorium's opening set the stage for a city-wide effort to desegregate the venue. In early October 1946, a group of white and Black ticket-holders, including the Dean of the Howard University Medical School, tried to attend a ballet performance but were denied entry based on race. Days later, Ingrid Bergman, star of the opening play, Joan of Lorraine, publicly denounced GW's racial exclusion policy and circulated a protest letter signed by the cast. GW students from the American Veterans Committee and the University Veterans Club printed flyers and, with the Southern Conference on Human Welfare, picketed outside.^[4] The National Symphony Orchestra canceled performances.^[9] In 1947, the Board of Trustees changed the theatre policy to admit African-Americans to sponsored public events, but President Marvin often denied such public uses. As students began to call for the desegregation of the university itself, Marvin publicly defended segregation, and the Trustees did not drop the racial exclusion of African Americans until 1954.^[4] In 1971, Lisner Auditorium was the site of a follow-up protest against Marvin's segregationist policies. In March 1970, in the wake of the Kent State shootings, students had dedicated their new student center, opened in 1969, as the Kent State Memorial Student Center. In 1971, the university renamed it the Cloyd Heck Marvin Center, holding the naming ceremony in Lisner Auditorium across the street. Students attended the ceremony en masse, verbally denounced Marvin, and staged a walkout,^[10] citing Marvin's racism as a key reason for their actions.^[11][12]

The first known public performance at Lisner without racial restriction was the 1955

Several live recordings of shows at Lisner have been produced. Nine of the seventeen tracks on Little Feat's 1978 double LP, Waiting for Columbus, were recorded at Lisner on August 8, 9, and 10, 1977, as were five additional tracks included on the "deluxe" 2002 two-CD re-release, along with three more tracks first issued on the 1981 compilation Hoy-Hoy and also included on the 2002 re-release. Stereo Review's 1978 review praised the album's "spontaneity," declaring that "the performances, like the quality of the recording, are crisp, with precisely the kind of moments live albums should catch and usually don't." It was certified Gold in 1979.^[15]

Outside of the Auditorium is the River Horse sculpture. In 1996 George Washington University President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg presented this bronze statue of a hippopotamus as a gift to the university's Class of 2000. The auditorium contains a mural by Augustus Vincent Track, and the Dimock gallery is located on the lower Lisner Lounge.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lisner Auditorium.

• Lisner Auditorium official website
• Lisner Auditorium box office
• Lisner Auditorium entry at The George Washington University and Foggy Bottom Historical Encyclopedia
• Roster of Lisner performeances, 1950s to present, at Setlist.fm
• Pink Floyd recorded live at Lisner, November 16th, 1971, audio on Youtube.
• Rush recorded live at Lisner, April 17th, 1977, audio on Youtube.
• Little Feat recorded live at Lisner, August 8th, 1977, audio on Youtube.