Santa Monica Civic Auditorium is a landmark Mid-Century Modern performance and event venue at 1855 Main Street. Completed in 1958 and designed by Welton Becket & Associates, the auditorium was built as a flexible civic gathering place for concerts, conventions, sporting events and community programs. Its most distinctive feature is a hydraulic main floor that could be tilted for theatrical seating or leveled for dances, exhibitions and other events. From 1961 through 1968, the Civic hosted the Academy Awards, including the first Oscars broadcast in color in 1966. It also became a major concert venue, presenting performers including Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, James Brown, The Beach Boys, The Doors, David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen and U2. The landmark 1964 T.A.M.I. Show concert film was recorded there.

The Civic was built as part of Santa Monica’s postwar Civic Center plan, following voter approval of a municipal bond measure in 1954. Its construction also came at the cost of the earlier Belmar neighborhood, a largely African American community whose homes and businesses were displaced as the Civic Center expanded. The auditorium was designated a Santa Monica landmark in 2001 and was later added to the National Register of Historic Places. It closed to regular public use on June 30, 2013, because of seismic and accessibility deficiencies and mounting operating losses. Since then, Santa Monica has pursued several unsuccessful redevelopment and rehabilitation proposals; as of 2026, the building remains closed while the city continues exploring ways to restore and reopen it as a cultural and community venue

Santa Monica Civic Auditorium

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