The War Memorial Opera House is an opera house in San Francisco, California, located on the western side of Van Ness Avenue across from the west side/rear facade of the San Francisco City Hall. It is part of the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center. It has been the home of the San Francisco Opera since opening night in 1932. It was the site of the San Francisco Conference, the first assembly of the newly organized United Nations in April 1945. Architecture In 1927, $4 million in municipal bonds were issued to finance the design and construction of the first municipally owned opera house in the United States. The architects of the building complex were Arthur Brown Jr., who had also designed the adjacent San Francisco City Hall between 1912 and 1916, and G. Albert Lansburgh, a theater designer responsible for San Francisco's Orpheum and the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Completed in 1932, it employs the classic Roman Doric order in a reserved and sober form appropriate to its function commemorating all those who served in World War I (1914/17–1918). A colonnade of paired columns screens colossal arch-headed windows above a severe rusticated basement, a scheme that was influenced by the severe design of the Louvre Colonnade. The interior contains a grand entrance hall with a high barrel vaulted and coffered ceiling parallel to the street, with overlooks from staircase landings at each end. The theater space is dominated by a massive aluminum and glass panel chandelier under a blue vault, and the proscenium arch is decorated with gilded figurative sculpture. The theater has 3,146 seats plus standing room for 200 behind the orchestra and balcony sections. History The San Francisco Symphony performed most of its concerts in the house, from 1932 to 1980. In spring of 1945, the United Nations had its San Francisco Conference (UN Conference on International Organization) first organizing assembly there. The UN Charter was later drafted and signed in the Herbst Theatre next door. Six years later in 1951, the Treaty of San Francisco, declaring peace with Japan was drafted and signed here and in the Herbst Theatre. During the years of Kurt Herbert Adler's general directorship, the inadequacies of the house became apparent as the season was expanded. In particular, there was a lack of office space and rehearsal space. In 1974, The Pointer Sisters were the first pop act to