Royce Hall and Northwest Campus Auditorium: A Legacy of Culture and Community at UCLA

Royce Hall and the Northwest Campus Auditorium stand as significant landmarks within the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), embodying the institution's commitment to intellectual, artistic, and community engagement. Royce Hall, with its rich history of performing arts, serves as a monument to Los Angeles’ cultural past and a gateway to the future, while the Northwest Campus Auditorium offers a modern, versatile space for multimedia presentations, lectures, and performances.

Royce Hall: A Historical Beacon of Performing Arts

Royce Hall is one of the four original buildings on UCLA's Westwood campus and has become the defining image of the university. Designed by the Los Angeles firm of Allison & Allison and completed in 1929, the brick and tile building, styled in Lombard Romanesque, formerly served as the university's primary classroom facility, embodying its academic and cultural aspirations. Today, its twin-towered facade remains UCLA's most recognizable landmark.

The history of performing arts at Royce Hall dates back to the late 1930s, hosting luminaries such as George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Arnold Schoenberg, and Jimmy Dorsey’s Band. Since then, the hall has welcomed a "Who's Who" of performing arts figures from the 20th and 21st centuries, including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, Twyla Tharp, Frank Zappa, Mikhail Baryshnikov, The Philip Glass Ensemble, and Meredith Monk.

Architectural Inspiration and Early Years

Modelled after Milan’s Basilica di Sant’Ambrogio, Royce Hall quickly established its reputation. By 1936, the campus, only seven years old, seemed an unlikely venue for George Gershwin's performance on September 28. In 1936, University of California President Robert Gordon Sproul formed a committee to manage programming, leading to Royce Hall’s first performing arts season in 1937, which featured Jimmy Dorsey’s Band and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Otto Klemperer. The following year, Duke Ellington’s Orchestra and Arnold Schoenberg performed there. Albert Einstein had already addressed the student body in 1932. The appearance of these artists signaled Royce Hall's evolution from a college auditorium to a world-class venue.

Seismic Renovation and Acoustic Enhancement

Royce Hall suffered severe damage in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, leading to a $70.5 million seismic renovation completed in 1998. Architects Barton Phelps & Associates and Anshen + Allen Los Angeles combined structural strengthening and functional improvements with interior updates. The iconic towers were strengthened and restored on an emergency basis. The project inserted a new, six-story structural system of concrete panels, located in the auditorium walls and connected by concrete beams to the building's historic exterior brickwork.

Eligibility for National Register listing prompted FEMA earthquake resistance requirements well beyond normal safety levels and triggered close design scrutiny by preservation officers. The sidewalls of the auditorium were reconfigured to hold foot-thick concrete shear panels. New wall openings, cut into abandoned rooftop areaways, are enclosed by new structure to form operable acoustic galleries allow variable acoustic responses. Along with new ceiling coves, the galleries increase the volume of the hall by 40,000 cubic feet and lengthen its reverberation period by over a second at their maximum setting. Skylights in the gallery restore natural light to the spectacular coffered ceiling, now for the first time, brightly illuminated. The new walls are clad in brick and terra cotta identical to that on the original exterior of the building. The uneven texture of projecting blocks improves sound diffusion.

The E.M. Skinner Pipe Organ

The hall houses a 6,600-pipe E.M. Skinner pipe organ, renovated and expanded in 1999 by Robert Turner. During the 1930s, Salt Lake Tabernacle organist Alexander Schreiner gave public recitals three times a week on the instrument. The organ was later featured in several recording sessions of the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta. It is also one of the home venues for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

Notable Performances and Recordings

In 1937, Royce Hall's first performing arts season was born. The first subscription series included the great contralto Marian Anderson, the Budapest String Quartet, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In 1960, Henri Temianka founded and conducted his "Let's Talk Music" series at Royce Hall; this orchestra became the California Chamber Symphony (CCS), which gave more than 100 concerts over the ensuing 23 years, including premieres of major works by such composers as Aaron Copland, Dmitri Shostakovich, Darius Milhaud, Alberto Ginastera, Gian Carlo Menotti and Malcolm Arnold. Soloists who performed with the CCS under Temianka's direction included David Oistrakh, Jean-Pierre Rampal and Benny Goodman.

Although not known for its acoustics prior to renovations in the 1980s, Royce Hall was the venue for a number of landmark recordings of the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the direction of Zubin Mehta. The recordings, made from 1967 through 1978 and recorded by the Decca label, were intended as hi-fi showpieces and contributed to the LA Phil's reputation for dazzle and glitz. To counter Royce Hall's disadvantageous acoustic profile, the engineers had a temporary stage platform constructed, which extended onto the floor of the hall to move the orchestra forward and to the center of the room; the platform was removed between recordings and reassembled as needed.

The focal point of the Royce Hall recordings under Mehta were showpieces of the 19th and 20th centuries, including noteworthy recordings of Stravinsky's Petrushka (recorded in 1967) and The Rite of Spring (recorded in 1969), Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 (recorded twice, in 1967 and 1976), Copland's Lincoln Portrait (recorded in 1968 with narrator Gregory Peck), Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra (recorded in 1969) and An Alpine Symphony (recorded in 1976), Holst's The Planets (recorded in 1971), Dvořák's Symphony No. 8 and Symphony No. 9 (both recorded in 1975), and Mahler's Symphony No. 3 (recorded 1978; Mehta's final recording with the orchestra as music director). The Royce Hall recordings have subsequently become regarded as classics, with particular acclaim focusing on the later recordings.

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Subsequent to Mehta's tenure, the Philharmonic would return to Royce Hall for recordings with other labels, including Prokofiev's Symphony No. 1 and Symphony No. Royce Hall has occasionally been used for the recording of film scores. Portions of John Williams' scores for A.I.

Starting in the 1960s and continuing to the present day, Royce Hall has also been utilized for the recording of contemporary popular music, specifically for live concert recordings.

Modern Enhancements

In 2012, the hall installed a new $128,000 Steinway concert grand piano.

Northwest Campus Auditorium: A Modern Venue for Diverse Events

The Northwest Campus Auditorium, conveniently located in Sunset Village, offers a contemporary space for a variety of events. With fixed seating for 350 guests, it is an ideal choice for multimedia presentations, teleconferences, lectures, film screenings, or small theatrical performances.

Features and Amenities

This venue includes a professional-grade projection, lighting, and sound booth, along with an 850-square foot stage and two dressing rooms. The lobby area is perfect for event registration and refreshment breaks, providing attendees with a comfortable space to gather, meet, and connect.

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Convenient Location

The Northwest Campus Auditorium is adjacent to the meeting rooms in Covel Commons in Sunset Village and a short walk from the event spaces in De Neve Plaza. All of our conference venues are located north of the main campus between Sunset Boulevard and Charles E. Young Drive. The first stop for a day of conferences is the Sunset Village Parking Structure, located at 200 De Neve Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90024. This multi-level underground structure offers day and hourly parking passes. Covel Commons is located above and adjacent to the Sunset Village Parking Structure. If you have a meeting in the Grand Horizon Room, in the outside terrace, or in Covel Commons' numerous salons, it will be located in this building. If you're conference or event is in the Palisades Room or the smaller Hermosa, Venice and Malibu rooms, then you'll want to walk over to Carnesale Commons, located just south of the Northwest Campus Auditorium.

Integration with Residential Life and Academics

The Northwest Campus Auditorium plays a significant role in UCLA's residential life and academic programs. The debut of Sunset Village in 1991 reinvigorated the Hill and set in motion an evolution that is continuing today, a transition away from an aggregation of disconnected residence halls to a true residential community. The Village - three smaller buildings, each of a distinct design by a different well-known architect and arrayed around a broad central courtyard anchored by the modern-Romanesque Covel Commons - was created to incorporate living space, classrooms, counseling offices, computer facilities and recreational areas. There’s even a separate auditorium for live performances, films and lectures. Today through Academics in the Commons, which is a division of the College of Letters and Science, students can receive tutoring or attend workshops on everything from choosing a major to time management. There is an academic-mentoring network for first-year students, as well as counseling services. The services obviously are popular with students, who line up hundreds deep to sign up for tutoring sessions. “Students are getting a value-added education by having their academic life happen not just in the classrooms on campus, but also in their residential setting,” says Hanson.

Four years ago when the College of Letters and Science unveiled the centerpiece of its revamped General Education program - a 15-unit multidisciplinary course that would span all three freshman quarters - it was held at the Northwest Campus Auditorium. We can have lectures there, we can screen films that are associated with the classes. There can be social activities associated with the classes students are taking,” Smith says. “This all is a way to extend that period of socialization and building of a sense of community. Students come to see UCLA as a university that not only embraces them as students in the classroom, but also recognizes them as people who have interests outside of class, and that our goal is to help them to develop fully as citizens. Additional Hill classes this year include Fiat Lux seminars, one-unit classes limited to 15 students that were born out of the university’s desire to address the complexity of issues that arose in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Hill: UCLA's Evolving Residential Community

To fully appreciate the context of the Northwest Campus Auditorium, it's essential to understand the evolution of "The Hill," UCLA's residential community.

Early Days and the Commuter Campus

Reflecting the car-dependent culture of Los Angeles, UCLA was, for much of the 73-year history of the Westwood campus, a commuter school with a large percentage of its students living at home with their parents and driving to classes each day. Even among those who lived outside the home in private rooms or apartments in, for example, 1961, more than 60 percent resided more than 2 miles away. UCLA opened its first “high-rise” residence hall, Dykstra, in 1959. At that time, the UCLA Southern Campus yearbook declared “the end of the 40-year ‘commuter campus’ era.” The opening of Dykstra may not have brought on the immediate end of the commuter campus, but it did mark the beginning of the end. In quick succession, Dykstra was followed by Sproul, Rieber and Hedrick halls. So today the campus once known as the “university on wheels” is increasingly a residential school.

Expansion and Modernization of Housing

To accommodate the growing number of students who want to live on campus - today about one-third of the total of 25,000 undergraduates live in UCLA housing, including more than 7,000 on campus and another 1,000 in nearby university-owned buildings - the university has responded by building more and more residential facilities. The demand for on-campus housing has become so great that putting three students in a room, rather than two, now is the norm for incoming freshmen. In spite of the crowding, some 94 percent of each year’s approximately 4,200 incoming freshmen and 70 percent of returning second-years elect to live in UCLA’s four high-rise residence halls, two residential-suite complexes, the three Sunset Village buildings and the new DeNeve Plaza community, all neatly tucked into the northwest corner of campus referred to as the Hill.

Recent Developments on the Hill

UCLA's original residence hall was Hershey Hall, located on Hilgard Avenue in South Campus. The original Hershey Hall of the 1930s is still in use today as an academic building. A west wing addition was built in 1959. Starting in 2009, the Hill underwent the Northwest Campus In-fill Project, which added an additional 1,525 beds, 10 faculty in-residence apartments, a 750-seat dining hall, and four residential towers. Two of these buildings, Holly Ridge and Gardenia Way, which are part of De Neve Plaza, opened February 2012. The other two, Sproul Cove and Sproul Landing, were completed in September 2013. Sproul Cove stands on the previously unoccupied ridge below Rieber Hall. In 2021, UCLA completed the construction of two additional residence halls on the Hill, Olympic Hall and Centennial Hall, built on an empty ridge between the Saxon and Hitch suites.

Residential Life and Community

Student life on the Hill is under the care of the Residential Life (ResLife), formerly called "Office of Residential Life (ORL)". Each floor or community on The Hill is overseen by one or two Residential Assistants (depending on the community size). These "RAs" are students staff who work to incorporate ResLife's "Core 5" Principles into the living environment. Typically, these RAs host "programs" (events) to encourage residents to meet each other, explore LA and be academically successful. Classic programs include visiting Santa Monica, going to the Ropes Course at Sunset Rec or getting free massages during midterms. The entire hilltop complex hums with activity throughout the day and well into the night. At DeNeve, couples stroll hand in hand after midnight through the well-lighted courtyard, its trees illuminated by spotlights, as a lone skateboarder rolls along a concrete path.

Learning to live together and to respect the diversity of people from different backgrounds and cultures is critical to UCLA’s residential-life program.

Dining Services

UCLA has worked hard to change the way students think about “dorm food.” In the last five years, UCLA Dining Services has overhauled and updated the food program, creating dining halls that are beautiful, inviting places to eat - tiled floors and tables with patio umbrellas and bistro-style chairs lend the rooms the ambiance of a café rather than that of a typical college cafeteria - with varied menus that change daily, entrees that are fresh and cooked on the spot, offered at separate preparation stations scattered throughout the area, all under the guidance of an executive chef who formerly cooked at the ritzy Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. Staying ahead of the curve is crucial to the housing program’s success. When UCLA wired every residence-hall room for the Internet in 1996, it was the first system of its kind in the country.

Graduate Student Housing

Roughly 3,000 graduate students live in one of six UCLA-owned apartment complexes or communities. Hilgard House and Weyburn Terrace provide housing for single students. In 2002, the university began constructing Phase 1 of Weyburn Terrace, a seven building apartment community with 1,387 beds, in order to recruit top graduate students from around the world. Weyburn Terrace enables UCLA to provide housing to approximately fifty percent of incoming graduate and professional students. It also served as housing for displaced Tulane University law students who visited at UCLA during the Fall semester following Hurricane Katrina. University Village provides student community living for married students, same-sex domestic partners and single parents.

Future Housing Plans

First, the housing program must be able to offer space and services to a projected influx of 4,000 additional full-time-equivalent students by 2010, at least two-thirds of them undergraduates. The revised UCLA Student Housing Master Plan 2000-2010 ups the ante further: The university wants to see 58 percent - about a 10-percent increase - of a fast-growing student population living on or within a mile of campus by 2011. Additionally, the 2000-2010 master plan guarantees incoming students four years of university housing and transfer students two years, double what was offered to them in the 1990 edition of the master plan. For new single graduate students and professional-school students, the plan promises two years in university-owned housing, or as many years as necessary for those with dependent children.

Types of Residential Buildings

The Hill is divided into smaller complexes, each organized around a common open space and having its own student services, buffet-style dining halls, and quick-service restaurants, with students permitted to dine at any eatery on the Hill. There are traditional high-rise Halls, with students grouped by floors, sharing a gender-specific bathroom with 40-50 others. Buildings of this sort include: Dykstra Hall, Hedrick Hall, Rieber Hall, and Sproul Hall. Recently, the Deluxe Residential Hall format has also been introduced, which has some features of the residential plaza, such as more spacious rooms and a thermostat in each room to control air-conditioning. The second configuration is the Plaza, which has the same general amenities as the Halls, but has more spacious rooms, and has a private bathroom or shared bathroom with an adjacent room. There are also Suites, which are standalone units supporting 4-6 students, with private bathroom and living space.

UCLA: A Timeline of Key Events

The following is an abbreviated timeline of UCLA history and does not include, for example, the series of events that led to the campus' founding in 1919, or myriad developments that helped shape UCLA's course over the years.

1919: California Gov. William D. Stephens signs Assembly Bill 626, establishing the Southern Branch of the University of California.
September 1929: The Vermont Avenue campus opens.
1925: The UCLA band begins as a 50-piece ROTC unit under the direction of W.G.
September 1933: Classes begin on the Westwood campus.
1934: The University Residence, official home of UCLA’s chief executive, is completed.
January 1949: Students take to tossing snowballs after the “Big Snow”.
1955: Graduate studies expand to include the doctoral degree; Ph.D.
1939: Mathematician Earle R.
1941: UCLA awards its first doctoral degree: a Ph.D. in history to Kenneth P.
1945: Clarence A.
1947: Raymond B.
1948: Vern O.
1950: Clarence A.
1952: Franklin D.
1959: UCLA acquired the Japanese Garden in Bel-Air, a gift from UC Regent Edward W.
1961: Professor Julian S.
1962: The UCLA Foundation replaces the UCLA Progress Fund as the campus’s fund-raising arm.
1964: The Franklin D.
1965: Thirty-six-year-old Charles E.
1969: To mark its 50th anniversary, the UCLA Alumni Association commissions "Mighty Bruins" and presents The Bruin bear statue to the university.
1982: National Research Council ranks UCLA among the nation’s premier research universities, with 31 Ph.D.
1998: “Campaign UCLA: where Great Futures Begin” is announced.
2001: Pharmacologist Louis J.
2001: Gov.
September 11, 2001: The campus marks Sept. 11 terrorist attacks with a memorial service in Royce Quad; faculty quickly create 50 “Perspective on Sept.
2002: Entertainment magnate David Geffen donates an unrestricted $200 million gift to the medical school, which is renamed the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
2003: The College and professional schools offer “Fiat Lux” seminars, which evolved out of the Sept.
2007: After a six-year absence, the Homecoming Parade returns to the streets of Westwood.
2004: Graduate student housing opens. About 1,400 graduate students make their home in Weyburn Terrace.

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