History

Opening in September 1996, the Performing Arts Center San Luis Obispo was founded as a unique partnership between the City of San Luis Obispo, Cal Poly, and private fundraising through the Foundation for the Performing Arts Center.

The Early Years (1958-1985)

Starting as early as 1958, community efforts began to develop ideas for building a performing arts center in San Luis Obispo. Decades later in 1985, the City Council authorized a study to be conducted which concluded that no single entity in San Luis Obispo had the financial capability to build a center of the recommended size and quality. It would be necessary for the City and Cal Poly and the private sector to join together in a venture of this magnitude and, in such a union, a location at Cal Poly made the most sense. 

The Dream is Realized (1986-1993)

In 1986, the Foundation for the Performing Arts Center was established to mount a campaign to raise private funds for the Center. In November of 1986, San Luis Obispo Mayor Ron Dunin, Cal Poly President Warren Baker, and Foundation for the Performing Arts Center President Warren Sinsheimer signed a Memorandum of Understanding, sealing a partnership that could finally make the dream come to fruition.

“The City, the University and the Foundation welcome this opportunity to create a facility which all have long needed and none alone has been able to achieve.”

The Central Coast Performing Arts Center Commission (a non-profit public benefit corporation) was also established to advise the University and the Manager on operating policies, scheduling, and maintenance policies.

With the Project Description completed, the challenging task of retaining an architect could begin. After a considerable search, Arthur Erickson Architects was selected in 1990. Erickson’s chief designer, Cal Poly Architecture alumnus Alberto Bertoli, began transforming the Project Description into an architectural conception and design. In 1991, a recession hit the country, and shocking news came when Arthur Erickson Architects declared bankruptcy, leaving the project at the conceptual drawings phase. The Steering Committee bounced back quickly, recommending in January of 1992 that John Carl Warnecke & Associates and Daniel, Mann, Johnson & Mendenhall (DMJM) be hired as the new architects using Arthur Erickson’s conceptual work.

“What attracted me to Bertoli’s design concepts was that the building not only related to the rolling hills and natural background environment of the site, but its own rolling shapes and forms captured the spirit of the building’s function and epitomized its expression.” – John Carl Warnecke, Architect of the Performing Arts Center

Generous donors to the Foundation for the PAC contributed $12.5 million of the $30 million needed to complete the building, with the largest gift being a contribution of $2.1 million dollars from entrepreneur Christopher Cohan. At that time, Cohan’s gift was the largest known private donation in the history of San Luis Obispo County. In his honor, the new building was named the Christopher Cohan Center. Together, the Christopher Cohan Center and the Cal Poly Theatre (now Spanos Theatre) would unite to make up the Performing Arts Center San Luis Obispo complex.

In June of 1993, a ceremonial groundbreaking was held on the Center site in a celebration attended by 300 community members and officials.

Hard Hat Ball & The Grand Opening Festival (1996)

The evening of June 29,1996 saw the long-awaited first public event to be held in the yet-to-be finished new Performing Arts Center—the Hard Hat Ball. The party was a fundraiser to support the Center’s first-year operating budget. Attended by 1,500 guests who were dressed in “construction elegant” attire, the event featured music and fun for every taste by 25 different entertainers on stages erected throughout the Center and its surroundings.

In September of 1996, the Performing Arts Center was officially completed and held a 10-day Grand Opening Festival with two opening nights on September 27 and 28. The opening nights featured representatives from local arts groups who had provided the most support for the Center—Clifton Swanson of the Mozart Festival, Michael Nowak of the San Luis Obispo County Symphony, Gary Lamprecht of the Vocal Arts Ensemble, and Thomas Davies of the Cuesta Master Chorale. The Grand Opening Festival hosted more than 10,000 patrons, beginning an exciting era of performing arts in San Luis Obispo.

The Performing Arts Center Today

The completion of the magnificent Performing Arts Center provides a venue that has enabled our resident performing arts companies to grow and mature in sophistication and allows our community to experience world-class artists right here in beautiful San Luis Obispo. This facility is dedicated to the many people who, through their vision and effort, brought this Center into being, and those who will use and enjoy this facility for years to come.