Hermosa Beach Community Theatre Market and Building Assessment FOR THE CITY OF HERMOSA BEACH, CALIFORNIA Lisa Nichols, City of Hermosa Beach Christina Kruise, DLR Group 1315 Valley Drive 700 Flower St Hermosa Beach, CA 90254 Los Angeles, CA 90017 (310) 318-0280 (213) 820-9400 2 Hermosa Beach Community Theatre Study PROJECT INFORMATION Field Date: March 9, 2020 Report Date: August 13, 2020 Hermosa Beach Community Theatre 710 Pier Ave. 90254 Hermosa Beach California City of Hermosa Beach Representatives: Lisa Nichols, City of Hermosa Beach / Senior Recreation Supervisor Mike Yasa, City of Hermosa Beach / Lead Theatre Technician Brian Byrd, City of Hermosa Beach / Lead Theatre Technician Joey Leweck, City of Hermosa Beach / Theatre Technician Jamie Makarczyk, Theatre Technician DLR Group: Christina Kruise, Project Manager Jordan Levin, Project Architect Michael Rudolph, Architect Matthew Jennings, Historic Preservationist Nasir Navidpour, Structural Engineer Duane Palin, Mechanical Engineer Anat Grant, Acoustician Wes Calkin, Theatrical Specialist Radames Coco, Electrical Engineer The DLR Group team would like to thank the City of Hermosa Beach and the participants listed above for their time and contributions to this study. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Project Brief and Context 06 MARKET ASSESSMENT Local and Regional Demographics 10 Community Survey Findings 18 Positioning HBCT within the South Bay Region 22 Facility Utilization and Potential Demand 26 The Qualitative Impacts of Renovation 30 Conclusions and Recommendations 32 ASSESSMENTS BY DISCIPLINE Historic Context 38 Preservation Approach 40 Egress, Life Safety, and Accessibility 45 Architectural 48 Structural 54 Electrical and Fire Protection 58 Mechanical and Plumbing 60 Theatrical 62 Acoustic 66 Audiovisual 68 RECOMMENDATIONS Recommendations Per Discipline 72 COST ESTIMATES Cost Estimates 94 APPENDICES Appendix A: Market Assessment U.S. Trends in Arts Attendance and Literary Reading U.S. Patterns of Arts Participation Appendix B: Market Assessment Coronavirus Theater Survey Appendix C: Market Assessment Demographic Data Study Areas Education Attainment Median Household Income Median Age Race Appendix D: Market Assessment Facility Inventory Venues Overview Venues by Owner Venues by Capacity Venues by Activity Appendix E: Market Assessment Community Theater Operations and Management Report (September 2016) Appendix F: Market Assessment Community Survey Data INTRODUCTION PROJECT BRIEF The findings of this work, as well as DLR Group’s conclusions and recommendations, are detailed in the Since 1978, the City of Hermosa Beach has owned and following pages. Subsequent work will include cost operated the Hermosa Beach Community Center, a former estimates and drawings for the previously described elementary-turned-junior high school built in 1935. Along renovation options. with the Hermosa Five-o Senior Activity Center, Hermosa Beach Historical Society Museum, and multiple dance, Finally, it must be acknowledged that the scope of this meeting, and classroom spaces, the Community Center study has been limited to the Community Theatre and its is home to the 502-seat Hermosa Beach Community support spaces (the lobby, box office, and greenroom). Any Theatre and the 82-seat 2nd Story Theater. Both of these comments or conclusions related to other segments of facilities operate primarily as rental venues, with the City the Hermosa Beach Community Center, including the 2nd occasionally utilizing the Community Theatre for film Story Theatre, have been included as a recommendation for screenings, special events, and other community gatherings. further study. While the Community Theatre currently serves a number of existing users well, there are physical limitations to the facility—including inadequate ADA accessibility—that A CONTEXTUAL NOTE challenge operations. With a long-term goal of establishing the Community Theatre as a focal point for high-quality, This study began in January 2020 with a community professional performing arts in Hermosa Beach and the survey. In March, at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the South Bay while providing a diversity of programming DLR Group team visited the Hermosa Beach Community designed to engage broad sectors of the community, the Theatre, kicking off the Building Assessment and in-person City of Hermosa Beach would like to address these issues. community engagement. At the time of this report’s writing, 94% of the United States population (roughly 307 million DLR Group is a global, integrated design services practice people) is under some kind of stay-at-home order, with with a Cultural & Performing Arts Studio specialized in non-essential businesses closed. While the impacts of the projects that enrich community and empower creative pandemic should not have an effect on the findings of the expression. The firm has been retained by the City of Building Assessment, they may have some effect on Market Hermosa Beach to complete a Market and Building Assessment findings. In particular, the pandemic is expected Assessment for the Hermosa Beach Community Theatre to have long-term ramifications on public assembly, the for- that considers and assesses two options: and nonprofit sectors, and the global economy, the extent of which is unknown at this time. As such, all study findings • A major renovation that would transform the facility are based on the pre-pandemic market and operating into a regional performing arts center; and, environment, with potential pandemic outcomes in mind. • A conservative renovation that would maintain and enhance the facility’s community focus. To complete this brief, DLR Group has assembled a team of architects, engineers, and theater planning specialists who have: • Met with existing and potential facility users and community leaders; • Studied the market for the arts in Hermosa Beach; • Reviewed the facility’s existing inventory of theater equipment; and, • Completed an assessment of the Community Theatre’s architectural (including historic preservation), structural, mechanical, electrical, acoustical, and audio-visual components; • Provided recommendations for the future of the Hermosa Beach Community Theatre; • Developed space programs, schematic drawings, and cost estimates for the renovations options listed above. 6 Hermosa Beach Community Theatre Study DLR Group 7 Market Assessment 8 Hermosa Beach Community Theatre Study DLR Group 9 MARKET ASSESSMENT DEMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS Since 1982, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Data from the survey is shown in the table below, suggesting the Federal government’s independent agency for funding that the most growth has occurred in “Touring parks, and supporting arts and culture in the United States, has monuments, buildings, or neighborhoods for historic or periodically partnered with the U.S. Census Bureau to design value” and attendance at “Outdoor performing arts conduct the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA). festivals.” Classical music, in the performing arts events Most recently completed in 2017, the SPPA asks U.S. adults category, is the only discipline in which attendance has aged 18 and over to report their level of participation in the declined. arts in the 12 months preceding the survey. The resulting data has enabled the NEA to assess long-term trends in arts Additional survey data suggests that growth in participation participation, particularly within the visual, performing, and is due, in part, to increased participation by African literary arts. Americans, Asian Americans, and those between the ages of 25 and 54. Other study findings suggest: In 2019, the NEA released initial findings from the 2017 SPPA in two reports: “U.S. Trends in Arts Attendance and • In California, 55% of adults attended a visual or Literary Reading: 2002-2017, A First Look at Results from performing arts event in 2017. In the Los Angeles- the 2017 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts” and Long Beach-Anaheim Metropolitan Statistical Area, it “U.S. Patterns of Arts Participation: A Full Report from the is estimated that 47% of adults attended a performing 2017 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts.” Focusing arts event. specifically on the rates at which U.S. adults have been • Age has little bearing on likeliness to attend the arts. attending performing and visual arts events, as well as That said, young adults (ages 18-24) attend arts reading literature, the reports suggest that participation in activities at higher rates than older adults and are the arts over the last five years has grown, with more than more likely to attend a live music performance or fair 54% of U.S. adults attending an artistic, creative, or cultural or festival than adults aged 45 and older. activity in the 12 months prior to the 2017 SPPA. Source: U.S. Trends in Arts Attendance and Literary Reading: 2002-2017, A First Look at Results from the 2017 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (September 2018) 10 Hermosa Beach Community Theatre Study • Forty-nine percent (49%) of U.S. adults indicated that On April 14, 2020, Shugoll Research, a Maryland-based they attended an artistic, creative, or cultural activity marketing research company, released findings from one or two times a year; 30% indicated that they an online survey that asked 2,762 theatergoers in the attended an artistic, creative, or cultural activity at Washington, D.C. area about their intent to return to the least three or four times a year, but not every month. theater after the pandemic. While the survey