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B. Marcus Priteca

{{short description|Scottish architect}}{{More sources|date=November 2024}}{{Infobox person

|name= B. Marcus Priteca

|image= Portrait of B Marcus Priteca, circa 1916 (MOHAI 11006).jpg

|caption=

|birth_name= Benjamin Marcus Priteca

|birth_date= 23 December 1889

|birth_place= Glasgow, Scotland

|death_date=1 October 1971 (aged 81)

|death_place= Seattle, Washington, U.S.

}}

Benjamin Marcus Priteca {{post-nominals|list=FAIA}} (23 December 1889 – 1 October 1971) was a Jewish-American architect. He is best known for designing theatres for Alexander Pantages.

Early life

Benjamin Marcus Priteca was born into a Jewish family in Glasgow on 23 December 1889.{{cite web | last = Normand | first = Eugene | title = A Tale of Two Cities' Jewish Architects: Emile Weil of New Orleans and B. Marcus Priteca of Seattle | publisher = academia.edu | url = https://www.academia.edu/11510199 | accessdate = 2015-09-09}} His nickname was "Benny". He served an apprenticeship in Edinburgh under architect Robert MacFarlane Cameron from 1904 to 1909, and earned degrees from the University of Edinburgh and the Royal College of Arts during this time. In 1909, he emigrated to the U.S. and settled in Seattle.

Career

Priteca met Seattle vaudeville theatre owner Alexander Pantages in 1910 and won a commission from him to design the San Francisco Pantages Theater (1911), the first of many so-named vaudeville and motion picture houses in what would become one of the largest theater chains in North America.

In all, Priteca designed 22 theaters for Pantages and another 128 for other theater owners. Notable theaters include the Coliseum (1915) in Seattle;{{cite web|last1=Michelson|first1=Alan|title=Benjamin Marcus Priteca|url=http://pcad.lib.washington.edu/person/268/|website=Pacific Coast Architecture Database|accessdate=2018-02-11|date=2015}} the Pantages (1918) in Tacoma, Washington; the Pantages (1920) in Los Angeles, California (downtown); the Pantages in San Diego, California (1924); the Pantages (renamed The Orpheum) (1926) in San Francisco, California (downtown); the Pantages (1928) in Fresno, California; the Paramount (1929) in Seattle; the Pantages (1929) in Hollywood, California (the last and largest of the Pantages theaters); the Warner on Pacific Boulevard in Huntington Park, California (1930); the Admiral (1942) in West Seattle; and the Orpheum (1927) in Vancouver.{{cite web|title=B. Marcus Priteca - The Orpheum Theatre - History of Vancouver|url=http://www.vancouverhistory.ca/orpheum2.htm|website=www.vancouverhistory.ca|accessdate=2018-02-11|archive-date=2016-08-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160829014747/http://www.vancouverhistory.ca/orpheum2.htm|url-status=dead}}

Priteca also designed the 1934 Grandstand and Clubhouse of Longacres Racetrack in Renton, Washington, which operated from 1935 to 1994 and has since been demolished. Pantages is said to have liked Priteca as a theater architect for his ability to create the appearance of opulence within a less-than-opulent budget. Pantages is quoted as saying, "Any damn fool can make a place look like a million dollars by spending a million dollars, but it's not everybody who can do the same thing with half a million."

Priteca's apprentices included Gregory Ain, who went on to success as a modernist architect (practicing in a very different manner). Ain worked with Priteca for a short time in the late 1920s and helped draw the Los Angeles Pantages.{{cite book

| last = Denzer

| first = Anthony

| title = Gregory Ain: The Modern Home as Social Commentary

| publisher = Rizzoli Publications

| year = 2008

| isbn = 978-0-8478-3062-6}} In 1951, Priteca became a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.{{cite book|title=College of Fellows: History & Directory|date=2000|publisher=The American Institute of Architects|page=86|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qvRPAAAAMAAJ|language=en}} He remained active as an architect well into his later years, working as a consultant in the design of the Seattle Opera House (1962) and the Civic Auditorium (1968) in Portland, Oregon.

Death

Priteca died in Seattle on 1 October 1971, at the age of 81.{{cite news|title=B. Marcus Priteca|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/10/04/archives/b-marcus-priteca.html|accessdate=2018-02-11|work=The New York Times|date=4 October 1971|page=42}} His first name was mistakenly recorded as "Bernard" on his death certificate.{{cite book|last1=Ochsner|first1=Jeffrey Karl|title=Shaping Seattle Architecture: A Historical Guide to the Architects|date=2017|publisher=University of Washington Press|isbn=9780295806891|page=377|edition=2nd|chapter=Sources of information for the architects. B. Marcus Priteca}} He was posthumously awarded honorary membership of the Theatre Historical Society of America.{{cite book|last1=Sutermeister|first1=Miriam|editor1-last=Ochsner|editor1-first=Jeffrey Karl|title=Shaping Seattle Architecture: A Historical Guide to the Architects|date=2017|publisher=University of Washington Press|isbn=9780295806891|pages=216–221|edition=2nd|chapter=Chapter 32. B. Marcus Priteca}}

Works

=Theaters=

=Other buildings=

Gallery

Image:Orpheum exterior 1946.jpg|Priteca's Orpheum Theatre on Granville Street in Vancouver, {{circa}} 1946

Image:Pantages.JPG|Priteca's Pantages Theater in Hollywood

Image:Seattle Langston 04.jpg|Detail of Priteca's Chevra Bikur Cholim synagogue in Seattle, now the Langston Hughes Performing Art Center

File:Coliseum Theatre construction, November 12, 1915 (SEATTLE 1612).jpg|Coliseum Theatre, Seattle under construction 1915

Image:Seattle Coliseum Theater 09.jpg|Terracotta Green Man, Coliseum Theatre, Seattle

Image:Seattle - Cristalla 05A.jpg|Terracotta Griffins, Crystal Pool, Seattle

Image:Seattle-Alhadeff-Sanctuary-3604.jpg|The Alhadeff Sanctuary of Seattle's Temple De Hirsch Sinai, a late Priteca project

File:Keller Auditorium.JPG|Civic Auditorium (now Keller Auditorium) in Portland

File:Crystal Pool natatorium, 2035 2nd Ave at Lenora St, Seattle (CURTIS 456).jpeg|Seattle's Crystal Pool natatorium, 1916

References

{{Reflist}}

  • [http://www.pstos.org/history/priteca.htm Biographical sketch of B. Marcus Priteca (with photographs) at Puget Sound Theatre Organ Society]
  • Statt, Daniel, [http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2999 Pantages, Alexander (1876-1936)], HistoryLink.org Essay 2999, February 19, 2001, Corrected December 18, 2002. Accessed 10 March 2007.

External links

{{Commons category|B. Marcus Priteca}}

  • {{cite web|title=Movie Theaters Designed by Benjamin Marcus Priteca|url=http://cinematreasures.org/architects/93|website=Cinema Treasures}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Priteca, B. Marcus}}

Category:1889 births

Category:1971 deaths

Category:American theatre architects

Category:Jewish architects

Category:Architects from Seattle

Category:Scottish emigrants to the United States

Category:Scottish Jews

Category:Architects from Glasgow

Category:Fellows of the American Institute of Architects