“We are planning on a full and complete historic renovation. Even though our plan is to subdivide the balconies into small boutique theaters, we will be doing it in such a way as to preserve nearly all of the amazing architectural details of the space. We would still preserve the massive downstairs screen and transform that space into a potential premiere venue with state of the art sound and picture. We have been working hand-in-hand with the both historic and neighborhood groups to make sure that our restoration plans meet with their approval. The great news is that the theater interior is largely in good shape. A large percentage of the interior details have been preserved and even most of the light fixtures are intact.”

For instance, take a peek inside the Cinema Latino across the street from the New Mission sometime. In that case the entire inside was gutted with the (abandoned) goal of turning it into a night club. Restoration from that state is impossible. Compare that to other single-screen theatres in the Bay Area that have been sympathetically converted to multi-screen uses, such as the Grand Lake in Oakland, or the late, lamented Alexandria on Geary and you can see that division into multiple screens absolutely need not be a death knell for the spirit and essence of a cinema.

Not that I’m saying that makes it worse. And I’m not saying it’s a bad idea here either — looks like you get a shitty view from the current balcony.

But it’s strange to me that the concept of “historical preservation” applies differently from one structure to the next. I hope the rules make enough of a distinction between what can be done to a run-down theater and, for example, Coit Tower.

At the other end of the spectrum are buildings like the Coliseum theatre on clement which was completely gutted, leaving only the facade intact, with condos built behind it.

Simply put, if a historic building is to survive, it generally needs to find a new role. The question is to find a new role that preserves and maintains as much of the original fabric and, I would argue, “soul”, as possible.