Los Angeles Theatres: United Artists Theatre: other basement areas

From the basement men's smoking lounge at the bottom of the house right lobby stairs we're looking down the corridor leading to the stage end of the building. Photo: Bill Counter - 2014

On the way it's the elevator for theatre patrons and various hotel functions and dressing rooms. Out of the frame to the right are the doors to the screening room. See the projection page for photos.

A view after a slight jog to the left. The elevator is on the right. It was opening day and nobody was using it. There was still lots to do. The lady is headed backstage in the corridor that runs under the house right side of the auditorium. Photo: Bill Counter - 2014

Directly to our left out of the photo is the hotel's housekeeping department, a newly built area under the rear of the auditorium. Much of the theatre's basement space has been hollowed out and made into an amazing labyrinth of support areas for the hotel.

The ramp from the elevator area back up to the smoking lounge. Photo: Bill Counter - 2014

A years-later look at the area near at the elevator with a helpful sign pointing the way to the theatre. Photo: Bill Counter - 2025

The ramp back up to the smoking lounge and screening room. Photo: Bill Counter - 2025

Along the corridor to backstage. Several dressing rooms are on the right. Just before that column with the fire extinguisher is a hall leading off to the break room and administrative offices. Photo: Bill Counter - 2025

Looking over toward the house left side of the space under the auditorium, the first of 2 transverse hallways. Here it's the break room on the left and the administrative offices straight ahead. Photo: Bill Counter - 2025

A peek into the break room. Photo: Bill Counter - 2014

Behind the glass door of the offices. We're looking toward the lobby in a corridor under the house left (west) side of the auditorium. Photo: Bill Counter - 2014

If, instead of going in the offices, you had taken a right, there's a corridor headed to upstage right. This is a view back down with the office door at the right. Photo: Bill Counter - 2025. See the stage and stage basement page for views under the stage.

Standing in front of the office door, looking back to the breakroom. Take a left at the end an continue to backstage. Or a right toward the lobby. Photo: Bill Counter - 2025

A little farther up the hall to backstage, looking back toward the lobby. At the end of the hall you're at the theatre elevator. Photo: Bill Counter - 2025

See that double mirror on the wall? Off to the right is where we took our detour to the break room and offices. Take a sharp right from where this shot was taken and it's transverse hall #2, just downstage of the orchestra pit.

The new hallway just downstage of the orchestra pit, an area that used to be part of the plenum under the main floor seats. We're looking west, across to house left. Photo: Bill Counter - 2025

That doorway on the right goes a room filled with communications and control wiring for the building. At the end, take a right to go upstage or find an exit to the alley. Take a left to head to the offices and more.

Downstage of the pit -- looking in at a rack in the communications room. Photo: Bill Counter - 2014

Back in the corridor under the house right side of the auditorium. We're looking toward backstage. That's the back wall of the building at the end of the corridor. From there stairs up to the stage are off to the right. Photo: Bill Counter - 2025. See the stage and stage basement page for more views under the stage.

In the office building basement:

Halfway to backstage in the theatre corridor you can detour toward Broadway and be in the basement under the office and retail portion of the building, now revamped for hotel functions.

Behind us in this view is a corridor running parallel to Broadway that's west of the corridor associated with theatre functions. Here we're looking east. Up the stairs there's the pit for the hotel elevators on the left. The doorway to the right gets us back to the corridor heading backstage. On the far right it's a door to a mechanical room. Photo: Bill Counter - 2014

A revamped mechanical room. We're looking at a heat exchanger and a circulating pump. Photo: Bill Counter - 2014

The air conditioning plant before the Ace renovations. It looks like the original generation of equipment for the theatre with a synchronous motor driving tandem compressors. Photo: Pat Lile - Coldwell Banker Pasadena - 2009

In the northeast corner of the hotel's basement. The door at left is the elevator pit for the new north elevator to go to the hotel's rooftop bar, Upstairs. On the right is a room for elevator control gear and a sewage pump. Nearby we have a DWP vault and the main electric room. Photo: Bill Counter - 2014

The main building switchboard before the Ace renovations. Photo: Pat Lile - 2009. Pat was the real estate broker for the church group's 2011 sale of the building to Greenfield Partners and their operator Ace Hotels.