About CPF and the Awards

Held in conjunction with CPF’s 2026 Annual Conference in Riverside, the 2026 Mission Inn Preservation Design Awards Ceremony and Reception will spotlight excellence in historic preservation in a setting that reflects the very spirit of the work being honored. This special evening brings together award recipients, conference participants, preservation leaders, and supporters from across California to celebrate outstanding preservation projects and leadership through the Preservation Design Awards and President’s Awards.

Founded in 1978, the California Preservation Foundation (CPF) is California’s statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection of historic places and cultural heritage. Through education, advocacy, and community-centered programs, CPF supports the people, projects, and policies that keep California’s historic resources vital and valued. We now support a national network of more than 36,000 members and supporters. Click here to learn how you can become a member.

Theatre Project Team

Project Lead or Principal
Mark Hornberger – Hornberger + Worstell

Client or Owner Firm/Organization Name
Martin Robert – The Presidio Theatre

Lead Architect, Engineer, or Designer Address
Mark Hornberger – Hornberger + Worstell

Historic Architect
Ruchira Nageswaran – Knapp Architects

Contractor
Jeff Gherardini – Plant Construction Company, L.P.

Specialty / Sub-Contractor
Emily Brainerd – Auerbach Pollock Friedlander

Specialty / Sub-Contractor
Larry French – Auerbach Glasow

Consulting Engineer
Dennis Paoletti – Paoletti Consulting

Consulting Engineer
Paul Rodler – Forell/Elsesser Engineers, Inc.

Consulting Engineer
Jeffrey Blaevoet – Guttmann & Blaevoet Consulting Engineers

Landscape Architect
Barbara Lundburg – RHAA

The Presidio Theatre

The Presidio Theatre is a winner for the 2021 Preservation Design Award for Rehabilitation. Award recipients are selected by a jury of top professionals in the fields of architecture, engineering, planning, and history, as well as renowned architecture critics and journalists. Tickets and sponsorship options are available at californiapreservation.org/awards.

Read more about the Preservation Design Awards

About The Presidio Theatre

The Presidio Theatre was recently rehabilitated and expanded to serve as a 600-seat multipurpose community theater that is suitable for a wide range of live performances, educational programs and as an events venue, with on-site facilities for backstage functions and visitor amenities. A full seismic and systems upgrade as well as site work and landscaping was completed in order to bring the building and site up to current fire, life-safety, and accessibility codes and to address Presidio Trust standards. The existing stage area — only 16-feet-deep — was inadequate to accommodate live dance and theatrical performance requirements and needed to be increased in depth. In order to provide this increased depth without moving the exterior walls of the theater building, the historic proscenium surround was moved (as a single intact element) southward into the volume of the auditorium space. The lobby and front-of-house spaces were retained with all finishes and features restored and the 1939 ticket booth re-constructed based on original WPA-era drawings. New elements complementing and expanding the existing Theatre building are comprised of separate north and south pavilions, an addition along the north rear-stage facade, and below-grade construction of new spaces. The walls of the pavilions are faced with opaque fiber-cement panels with metal trim, all differentiated from the board-formed concrete walls of the historic building but matching its “Presidio White” color. Exterior walls of the south pavilion are clear vision glass, thus reducing its visual weight, and allowing its functional role (as a circulation container) to be visible from the exterior.

A person walks past the white facade of the Presidio Theatre in San Francisco, which features a red-tiled roof and arched windows. Text highlights the theatre’s 2021 Preservation Design Award for Rehabilitation.
A modern, single-story building with a red-tiled roof and arched entryway is lit warmly at dusk. An American flag stands to the right and the sign reads “Roseland Peninsula Health.” Shrubs and a sidewalk line the front.
Aerial view of the Presidio in San Francisco showing red-roofed buildings, parking lots, green lawns, and nearby lagoon, with the Presidio Theatre location circled in white.
A large audience in uniform sits in an auditorium watching a live musical performance on stage, with musicians, instruments, and a speaker at a podium in front of a large screen.
A man holding a sign next to another man.
A Mediterranean-style building with red-tiled roof and arched entryway under a blue sky. People walk on the sidewalk in front, including someone walking two white dogs. A sign reads PRESIDIO THEATRE.
A modern, white building with columns and large doors, surrounded by a landscaped garden and a paved walkway under a bright blue sky. Steps lead up to the entrance, and another building is visible in the background.
A modern building with a red-tiled roof and white walls, featuring a grassy courtyard, concrete walkways, and several black lamp posts. Two people stand near a glass entrance on the right side.
A view from the back of an empty auditorium with rows of black seats facing a stage where an orchestra is performing under bright lights.
Workers in white protective suits remove debris from a gymnasium under renovation. Scaffolding stands on both sides, and parts of the ceiling and bleachers are dismantled. The lighting is dim and yellowish.
Featured Image Courtesy Terry Lorant Photography