One of the most historic buildings in St. Petersburg will be getting a major makeover.<\/p>\n
The Palladium was built in 1925 by George A. Fuller Construction, the same company behind the Flatiron Building in New York City. <\/p>\n
Originally built as a Christian Science church, the theater has become the core of St. Pete’s performing arts and culture. And in 2007, it became part of St. Petersburg College.<\/p>\n
But after all this time, it’s in some need for some major renovations.<\/p>\n
In October, the Pinellas County Commission approved moving the approximately $12 million restoration project forward. And as a result, the theater will be closed for around a year.<\/p>\n
Speaking on “Florida Matters Live & Local,” Paul Wilborn, The Palladium’s executive director, spoke with host Matthew Peddie about the construction plan, as well as what visitors should expect when visiting after the renovation.<\/p>\n
The interview below was edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n
Can you describe what The Palladium looks and feels like?<\/p>\n
It’s an incredible building. It’s one of the most beautiful historic buildings in St. Petersburg. Not only built by a famous architect, but the company that built it in the ’20s also built the Flatiron Building in New York. It’s just a magnificent structure.<\/p>\n
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It was a church up until the mid-’90s when the population dwindled. Some visionary folks in St. Pete saw the church and realized it had theater seats, so they bought it and made a theater out of it, with the idea that we have an affordable community venue. A lot of our big venues are great, but they’re not affordable for the community to do shows.<\/p>\n
So that’s who we are, and we’ve been doing it since 1998.<\/p>\n
So you’re bridging the space between amateur theater and the more expensive, high-priced tickets at other venues.<\/p>\n
When you look, our big performing arts centers are for big rock and pop shows, roadshows, Broadway, all that stuff. That’s who they need to be.<\/p>\n
The community needs places where our “Nutcracker” just sold out four performances over the weekend, and every dancer there was from St. Pete and trained in St. Pete. It was a local production, that’s kind of who we are.<\/p>\n
We really support local performers; that’s one of our biggest things. We really focus on being a home for the best talent we have in the area, musicians of all kinds \u2014 jazz, blues, spoken, acoustic, opera, and chamber music.<\/p>\n
Since it became a theater, there have been a lot of performances, concerts, speeches. Were there any notable events at the theater, or even before when it was a church, that people may be surprised to learn about?<\/p>\n
We talk about being so local, but the show that really put us on the map happened in 2009. <\/p>\n
This guy named Billy Joel wanted to do a college show, and they reached out to us. So we welcomed Billy Joel to our stage. At that point, we had made about a million dollars in improvements to the building.<\/p>\n
His show sold out, and it really put us on the map. Our business just took off after that show. So we got to thank Billy for that.<\/p>\n