Inside Tampa Theatre's $30 million restoration
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Photo: Laura LeBlanc Corry
On a reporting trip this week, we got to touch the sky.
- Well, sort of.
Why it matters: We experienced the closest thing to it here in Tampa during a tour of the century-old Tampa Theatre about two months into a $30 million renovation project.
State of play: The theater's storied Duncan Auditorium has been closed since March while workers upgrade infrastructure and restore the space back to its heyday as a Roaring '20s movie palace.
- The $24.5 million first phase of the project also includes an education center still in the works and the John T. Taylor Screening Room, a 43-seat movie theater completed in 2024 that will remain open through construction.
The big picture: The goal goes beyond beautification. It also sets future stewards up for success for the theater's next 100 years, development officer Laura LeBlanc Corry told us.
- Kathryn's full disclosure: Laura is one of my besties and very generously offered to show me around the construction zone. I, of course, had to bring Yacob, who proposed to his wife at the theater in 2024.
The view from inside: Layers of scaffolding packed the auditorium, rising high above the tarp-covered seats.
- A painter applied vivid new color to the plasterwork near the stage as we climbed the metal stairs, Yacob white-knuckling the railing because of a fear of heights he didn't tell us about until after we were back at ground level.
Yes, but: It was sooooo worth it.
- Standing on a plywood platform at the top, our fingertips brushed the navy ceiling that we'd sat beneath many times before, tiny pinpricks of light twinkling like stars.
Context: The venue is considered the most intact elaborate theater designed by John Eberson, an architect who specialized in the "atmospheric" style.
- That type of design is aimed at evoking the feeling of being outdoors, hence the Mediterranean-style proscenium and night sky-like ceiling.
Fun fact: Each "star" was powered by a lightbulb that had to be changed by scaling a harrowing catwalk on the other side of the ceiling.
- As part of the renovation, a network for fiber-optic lights will replace the outdated system and restore the ceiling to its full star power.
- "For the first time in a really long time," Laura told us, "we'll get to see the sky all lit up."
What's next: The auditorium is set to reopen in October, just in time for its 100th anniversary.
- And don't worry — the women's restroom tiny toilets will be waiting for you.
