SAN FRANCISCO—The San Francisco Armory will celebrate its grand opening as an official event venue on New Year’s Eve on Saturday, December 31.
The Armory located on the corner of 14th and Mission Streets was built in 1915 on a piece of property considered Woodward’s Gardens. It was originally constructed to replace another armory that had been destroyed by an earthquake and later used as San Francisco’s primary sports venue from the 1920s through the 1940s.
In 2016, the space was used for a range of events, including a haunted house, an all-female electronic music festival, a film festival by San Francisco Film Society and an Aids/Lifecycle Expo.
In the early 2000s, there where several failed attempts to develop the space, which included a proposal to convert the building into a dot-com space. That proposal was met by neighborhood opposition. Another plan included turning the building into a facility for computer equipment, which failed due to a lack of funding.
After a final failed attempt to convert the establishment into a condominium complex, the building stayed empty until it was purchased by Armory Studios, LLC in 2007. Armory Studios was successful in the utilization of the property as extensive construction or upgrading was not needed.
“The exterior of the Mission Armory is designed to convey the impression of a heavily armored and forbidding Moorish fortress, with four octagonal towers, rough clinker brick exterior walls and narrow rectangular lancet windows,” stated to the San Francisco Armory’s website.
According to an article by Mission Logic, around 4,000 people are expected to attend the New Year’s event. The Drill Court, spanning 40,000 square feet will house the festivities. The headliner is slated to be French electronic band Justice.
