The Paramount Center
When one of our team members, Monica Arrache, told me she was traveling to visit her hometown of Boston (one of my fave cities) I hounded her asked her nicely if she would photograph anything Fauxology-ish in order to share with the readers. She finally had enough of my begging kindly did so with not one, but two amazing spaces.
Emerson College came upon the closed and dilapidated Art Deco-styled Paramount Theatre and commissioned it to undergo a $92 million dollar renovation to transform it into The Paramount Center. The renovation was overseen by Elkus Manfredi Architects. The interior theater has been restored to look like the movie palace that opened in 1932, complete with gold figurines, murals and restored historic finishes. It now houses classrooms, offices and several state-of-the-art performance spaces for Emerson College. There are guided tours for the public as well. Here are some of Monica’s images…
...and they do mean, ANYBODY...
559 Washington Street, Boston, MA
I found an excellent article on its history and current interior design. Additionally, there is a 5-minute video from The Emerson Channel in case you’d like to see further into the space:
I hope you’ve enjoyed this peek into the new Paramount Center and that it inspires you to visit it while traveling in Boston. I’d like to send out a special Thank You! to Monica for the images and information. I’ll have the second location up soon. Have a great day!
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[...] Monica Arrache, visited during her hometown visit to Boston.? Please be sure to see her visit to The Paramount Center. 219 Tremont Street, Boston, [...]
steve shriver
526 days ago
That’s a beauty! Nice to see the care and money to back it up.
Carol
525 days ago
This is, without question, beautiful. What I do question though, is why artisans from L.A. were recruited for this job and local artisans were overlooked. This is a very sad fact here in Boston. Whenever a major renovation takes place or a new hotel arrives in Boston, decorative painters are flown in from all over the country. There are a wealth of extremely talented and capable decorative painters and artisans here in the Boston area, who never even get the chance to put a bid in. It’s a pet peeve of mine. I have followed through on such leads many, many times, only to be told “they are bringing in their own crew from out of state”. I wonder if other decorative painters also experience this in their city. Thanks for posting this Regina. Frustrating as this is, I will go check it out at some point!
Tom Amin
525 days ago
Stunning!!! It’s like stepping back through time – too often elegance is sacrificed on the altar of expediency and we lose so much. Where I live in the Caribbean most of our independently owned theatres have been replaced by multi-screen plexes, so sterile and cold – lacking the real warmth or beckoning of some of the structures of a bygone era. I do hope we see more restorative works such as this one …
Suzanne
525 days ago
And it’s a school too!? Very cool! Beautiful pics and great info! Thank you!
MIKE
525 days ago
Great job with the photos, just as a point of clarification with regard to the Decorative painting; because of the amount of decorative work that needed to be accomplished in a short amount of time on this project, there were only a few firms willing /able to take this project on and complete in the allotted time frame. With that, I would also like to acknowledge that, yes there were in fact artisans from out of state that work directly for the decorative contractor but because of the amount of work in the Theater they hired a local firm to assist in the work
The Godfather
519 days ago
I remember attending the Paramounr in its glory days. It may look even better today
Regina
515 days ago
I hope we see more restorative works as well. It’s nice to have appreciation for these beautiful works of art.