The historic Oaks Theater finally reopens as a bouldering gym
The long-awaited Oaks bouldering facility, which has been vacant since 2011, is expected to open by the end of the year as Touchstone Climbing puts the finishing touches on the former movie theater that has been a community staple for 98 years on Solano Street .
Due to the pandemic, the transformation of the former 1,438-seat Oaks Theater into a state-of-the-art climbing gym took four years, slightly longer than expected.
The Oaks joins two other bouldering facilities in Berkeley, Benchmark Climbing (1607 Shattuck Ave.) and Mosaic Boulders (2369 Telegraph Ave.), both opening in 2022, and Touchstone, which reopened and opened It joins top-roping facility Berkeley Ironworks. -An industrial space conceived in 2000.
Local businesses believe the new facility will be a blow to Solano Street’s retail industry, which has struggled since the pandemic. The re-lighting of the theater’s neon marquee in October was the latest Touchstone news to hit social media. When he first presented at the Oaks in 2017, Touchstone estimated that the Oaks would draw about 800 visitors per day.
For more than a decade, residents have loved the theater on Solano Street, its unique architectural features and its ability to bring together disparate members of the community, keep the commercial district vibrant, and light up at night to benefit nearby restaurants. I was worried about losing it. There is also a coffee shop for theater audiences.
Auni Abaya, who has run Jerusalem Kitchen on the corner of Solano and Alameda for the past 24 years, said she has lost a significant portion of her business when theaters are closed. I will go,” he said.
We are already seeing an increase as we now have route setters working at the facility. “Many people come to climb the mountain by bicycle,” he says. He is looking forward to the official opening.
“It’s certainly very exciting,” said Allen Cain, director of the Solano Avenue Association. “We’ve been excited about this project for several years now. We’re excited that this space is being invested in, that it won’t be vacant for long, and that someone has the will and financial wherewithal to make something out of it.” For that, we are grateful.”
outdoor theater.indoor gym
The so-called “adaptive reuse” project, designed in collaboration with Oakland’s Twelve13 Architects, allows communities to get what they need at the curb, albeit for other uses indoors. It’s done.
From the curb, The Oaks retains its nostalgic Main Street charm as an old-fashioned theater with a neon marquee. The building’s Art Deco lobby and his five retail spaces along Solano Street were also retained. But the heart of the abandoned theater was transformed into his two-story, skylit interior with a colorful, graphic climbing wall that juts out into the space. This is the opposite of sitting in a darkened theater and bringing communities together through sport.
Preserving old theaters, or just their facades, is nothing new, but the practice has gained more attention in recent years as movie theaters have closed due to the surge in popularity of streaming services during the pandemic. There were once six theaters in downtown Berkeley, but three have closed in recent years, leaving Rialto Cinemas in Elmwood as the only venue for first-run movies left in the city. (The Pacific Film Archive at the University of California, Berkeley, focuses on arthouse, historical, and international films.)
The Oaks is the first project to demonstrate the potential of reusing century-old buildings in new ways. Elsewhere in Berkeley, plans are underway to preserve at least part of the Regal UA and California Theater facades while making way for hundreds of apartments.
The Oaks is Touchstone’s 16th facility in California. Touchstone’s headquarters are located across the street from the Ironworks facility and includes Touchstone’s first team training center for youth competitive climbing.
The Oaks will be Touchstone’s second theater conversion, following The Studio in San Jose, which opened in 2012.
“One of the exciting things about working with Touchstone is that Touchstone has a history of taking historic buildings, like old power plants and factories, and now movie theaters, and really respecting the exterior. That’s true,” said Councilor Sophie Hearn. She rushed to the city’s Economic Development Department as a resource and helped the company navigate the permitting process. She said: “It’s great to bring something so vibrant and new into a historic building, to blend old and new in such a dynamic way.”
A recent tour of the Oaks revealed what was lost, preserved, and added to the 21,575-square-foot former theater. The architects have also designed other Touchstone properties, including Pacific Pipe, which opened in Oakland last year. Touchstone has formed its own construction company for its projects.
“We have made every effort to preserve the original molding and decoration,” said Jeffrey Bowling, Touchstone’s director of creative and business development.
In addition to the outside marquee, most of the old theater’s Art Deco architectural elements can be seen at the entrance, including the original cluster of chandeliers. One of the walls preserves a pair of decorative plaster filigree intended to highlight the featured presentations, but now the climbing themes chosen are “Cliff Hanger” and “Vertical Limit.” Movie posters are on display.
Restorers have replicated any damaged or missing parts of the elaborate sculptures that wrap around the walls and ceiling of the entrance. This entrance will soon include a reception area where members will be able to check in and purchase drinks and snacks.
In the lobby, a decorative painter was hired to match the faux velvet and marble textures that run from the hallway to the main stair hall. The hallway is lined with restored original sconces, then rotates 90 degrees to reveal his 14,000-square-foot dramatic space, an abandoned former theater with ceilings more than 40 feet high. Overhead there is a huge I-beam to support the ceiling. His two-story proscenium arch in the back wall is the only remaining theatrical reference.
Instead of a dark theater, the room was brightened by lots of skylights. “We love bringing natural light into our repurposed buildings,” says Heather Belgreen, director of marketing at Touchstone.
To make the most of the room’s extraordinarily high height, the architects removed internal walls, keeping the interior open and connected by an open steel staircase and handrail, making it easy to climb. We created two floors. On the main floor, he has two parallel climbing walls that are 15 feet tall and jut out into the space in places. On the second floor he has three climbing walls, but they are shorter (12 feet). There is a total of 7,000 square feet of climbing space.
There’s also a training room on the second floor that houses cardio equipment and weights. Yoga and fitness classes are also offered, as well as amenities such as showers, complimentary towel service, and a pro shop stocking mountaineering equipment. Monthly memberships are $95 (excluding $100 initiation fee) and daily passes are $30.
The facility’s climbing walls were manufactured by Walltopia, a Bulgarian manufacturer that Touchstone works with on all of its facilities. The walls, made from textured wood, will be shipped to the United States and assembled here by a team in Bulgaria.
Surround all climbing surfaces with approximately 1 foot of padding in case a climber loses his footing. This is common in bouldering gyms with low walls. Top-roping facilities have higher walls (45 feet high at Berkeley Steel Works) and use ropes and protective gear.
In addition to owning its own construction company, Touchstone also manufactures its own holds. The climb itself was created, climbed, and scored by 28 Touchstone route setters. This is a process called forerunning. “You have to actually climb it to get a score,” Belgreen said. “I’ll climb it hundreds of times.”
V0 is the easiest route (for example, a 12-foot climb with thick spherical holds), while V10 is for advanced climbers (longer climbs, smaller holds, or more difficult to grab) .
Many owners and operators
The Oaks has been an architectural cornerstone of Solano since 1925 and opened on September 15th to screen the movie “Steppin’ Out,” starring Ford Sterling. The architects are the Reed Brothers, who also designed the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, the Cliff House in San Francisco, and the Fairmont Hotel. In 1940, architect William B. David renovated the theater in a modern, streamlined Art Deco style inspired by aerodynamic design. The theater was upgraded in 1973 to two screens.
Over its nearly century-long history, various owners and managers have come and gone. More recently, Oakes was run by the Renaissance His Rialto chain, which restored the theater when it took over in 1994. At one point, Grand Lake Theater owner Allen Mishan ran the Oaks until his 2005, when Metropolitan Theater Company took over. and operated the theater until 2010.
In 2010, independent operator Merriment Media screened Bollywood films for a few months before terminating the contract due to non-payment of rent. At the time, the theater was owned by John Gordon, a Berkeley commercial real estate broker and developer and one of Berkeley’s largest real estate owners.
Some residents and community groups had originally hoped to rent the building as a community performance space, but those plans never materialized.
“One of the challenges they had was making the major renovations that were needed,” Hahn said. “As a small nonprofit, it’s very difficult to go to the board and ask for funding to repair a facility that you don’t own.”
Gordon ultimately put the property on the market in May 2017 for $4.25 million. Mark and Debra Melvin, who now live in Marin County, purchased the building for close to the asking price.
The Melvins met while climbing at Indian Rock Park in 1978. He was a student at the University of California, Berkeley, and she had just graduated from the California Institute of the Arts in Oakland. The park has historical ties to California rock climbing. The Northbrae rhyolite mountains (Indian Rock, Cragmont Rock, and nearby Mortar Rock) served as a proving ground for local climbers and helped pioneer climbing in parks such as Yosemite. Many Sierra Club members also joined the Cragmont Climbing Club, which he founded in 1932 to promote climbing safety.
“We’ve been climbing together ever since we met,” Mark Melvin told Berkeleyside in 2017. They opened their first landmark climbing gym, Mission Cliffs, in San Francisco in 1995.
Shortly after purchasing the building in 2017, Melvin described the Oaks location as “amazing,” adding, “Who can’t define Solano Avenue without mentioning the Oaks?”
