Sometimes it pays to be the contractor that just puts on the color they’re asked to; residents in San Diego are up in arms — and many in the city have chosen sides — over a color scheme on the century-old but newly painted Balboa Theater, a previously vacant building restored by the city to the tune of 26.5 million dollars about 15 years ago.

The Balboa, opened as a vaudeville and movie house in 1924, was named as a San Diego historic site in 1972 and added to the national register of historic places in 1996, but closed two years later and remained shuttered for 20 years. Its significance in the community was well known.

According to an article on Paint Square News, a quarter-million-dollar paint job was completed in July, to “invigorate the theater’s façade” in time for its 100th anniversary that will be celebrated in March 2024 (which, can you believe it, makes the theater and APC the same age!).

Originally painted with a “buff-colored orange” that was chosen to complement the building’s Spanish revival style, the theater was most recently painted a slightly darker color than the original. But after the recently completed paint job, it now sports grey on the first floor with white on the upper stories, all topped off with burgundy trim. The new look doesn’t sit well with many residents, who miss the old color and deem the new hues historically inaccurate. (One social media commenter said the building looks like it’s been primed but not painted.)

The Theater Responds

San Diego Theaters, the organization responsible for the color selection, responded by saying it had consulted Ken Lubin, an expert in theater design from New York City who has influenced the paint color on practically every historic Broadway theater. Lubin said that white was indeed historically accurate, even if it wasn’t the color the building was painted originally. That became one of the points of contention: whether a color “of the era” was good enough to represent historical accuracy, or if there should have been a narrower interpretation and the theater restored to its original hue.

There was enough outrage about this that the organization published an FAQ page to address people’s concerns and defend its decision. It quoted Lubin as saying, “The 1920s witnessed the Spanish Colonial Revival, an influential architectural style inspired by early Spanish missions and haciendas. In Southern California, the standout feature was unmistakable — white stucco walls adorned with ornate elements like arches, balconies, and decorative tiles.”

The organization also noted that several city groups were on board with the palette. “San Diego Theatres alerted and provided information about plans to paint the Balboa Theatre white to Civic Communities, the City of San Diego Office of Economic Development, and San Diego Historic Resources Board,” the group stated, adding that there was no objection from any of these organizations.

Stand by Your Plan

While white may have been accurate to the era, it was not, say architectural historians, accurate to the building itself — or to the style of the building. By scraping down to the original façade, they determined the original color was more akin to the previous orange. David Marshall, president of Heritage Architecture and Planning based in downtown San Diego, has issued a challenge to the city “to find one preservation architect or historian that thinks those colors are historically accurate.”

Even if you take history out of it, many area residents feel that the new color scheme does nothing to set the theater apart, but instead just blandly blends it in with everything else on the block. Others, however, like the new look. It’s in the eye of the beholder, even from a historical perspective. “San Diego Theatres stands by the decision and respects those who disagree with the choice made,” said the organization.

A website called Orchids & Onions disagrees: “The result of this ill-conceived paint job is that the theater now looks almost exactly as it did from 1960-2007 when it was a mostly abandoned, run-down building. This terrible paint scheme deserves a big smelly onion and needs to be reversed immediately,” it published.