Metreon Makeover
In San Francisco, when it comes time for me to watch a new movie release, as I log onto Fandango.com, all I wish for is that the movie is playing at Century 9 in Westfield and NOT at Lowe’s in the Metreon. If you’ve been to the Metreon lately, you’ll immediately know why. Aside from the 18-year old kid who was shot to death near the entrance in November of 2007, and the immense “hoodlum” presence in the night and evening hours, the interior of this space has a weirdly dark and vaguely menacing feel to it.
Not for long.
The Metreon will be undergoing a $30 million dollar makeover to start this fall, and scheduled to complete in November 2010. So what exactly are they going to do? If you’ve ever walked in to the Metreon from the back (a walkway about a quarter of a mile up from 4th Stret), where the beautiful Yerba Buena Gardens stands, the new look of the Metreon will make sense. The front door will be moved about 40 yards down Fourth Street, where 12 foot high retracable glass panels will replace eight doors. This will allow open views of the park from Fourth Street. When you walk in through these doors, you will be greeted by a 34 high foot atrium, framed by those restaurants that are currently tucked into the back end of the Metreon: Firewood Cafe, Buckhorn Grill, and Sanraku, just to name a few. These restaurants will finally be in the limelight.
The second floor of the newly redesigned Metreon will be reserved for arts and cultural use, while Lowe’s theater will remain in place on the third floor. And for the fourth floor, are you ready for this? Those of you who have had the pleasure of living and experiencing the second most amazing city in the world, NYC, (San Francisco, of course, being the first) the fourth floor will become the first ever non-NYC home of Tavern on the Green, the legendary Central Park restaurant. The restaurant also has plans to create an open air lounge with fire pits on a 14,000 square foot terrance just outside the main restaurant.
The goals are simple. The way the Metreon stands right now, the designers/architects had one goal in mind: Distract patrons from the outside world, and trap them inside, for a bite to eat or for the whole day. The newly envisioned Metreon’s goal is even more simple: Embrace your surroundings.
See the before and after pictures below:
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