Adams Ave Theater

Madeline Yang

Last seen loaded with bolts of discount fabric for sale, San Diego’s favorite vintage movie palace-turned-punk rock concert hall is newly renovated and ready for its latest incarnation as an events and performance space. Normal Heights’ landmark Adams Avenue Theater will officially reclaim neighborhood venue status in early November.The redesign has been a multiyear effort by Jillian Ziska, and her events planning business To Be Designed—a subsidiary of management group Social Anthology, which also operates Verbena Kitchen and Hangar 858. Ziska remodeled Adams Avenue Theater with an eye toward hosting weddings and other private events, while also plotting community-oriented gatherings akin to holiday bazaars, and shows ranging from live music to stand-up comedy. As a result, its tastefully re-imagined interior remains something of a blank canvas for planners and promoters. “Blank enough for people to envision their own aesthetic,” Ziska explains. Much of the character comes from the 100-year-old building itself. Ziska was so determined to develop a space that feels like more than “four walls and a roof,” that she spent years pursuing the historic theater, ultimately signing a lease in February 2020. “We wanted something with a past that we could revitalize and bring back,” she stresses. To anyone under 30 years old, Adams Avenue Theater has only ever been a fabric store fronted by a theatrical marquee. But its history goes back to 1924, when it opened as The Carteri Theatre, a movie-house designed by Louis J. Gill—best known as the original architect of the San Diego Zoo (and, to architecture nerds, as the nephew of Irving Gill). 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Adams Avenue Theater (@adamsavetheater)

Over the next several decades, the original, Spanish Colonial façade got an art deco makeover, including its red, green, and gold terrazzo. But by the 1960s, the cinema shuttered, effectively sitting empty until given a second life by—who else?—punk rockers. Back in 1982, Casbah owner Tim Mays was cutting his teeth as a rock impresario when he began booking shows at the theater, delivering standout acts from punk’s heyday, like Black Flag, The Cramps, and Iggy Pop. “We used to cram 900 people in there,” recalls Mays, who also remembers San Diego police cruisers would park across the street, waiting for the shows to let out, “so they could, you know, round up any miscreants and troublemakers.” To wit, in 1986, a return engagement by English hard rock band Motörhead had to be canceled at the last minute, angering ticket holders who “broke into the place and trashed the theater.” That spelled the beginning of the end for Adams Avenue Theater as a rock venue. But such bygones won’t stop Ziska’s team from booking music events for what is now a more welcoming, a 289-person venue. She and Mays have been discussing a revival of the space as a decidedly quieter, non-punk performance space. “There’s more mature artists out there that would probably work,” notes May with a chuckle. Ziska also plans to redeem the space as a moviehouse. It’s equipped with a digital projector to screen classic and cult films. “We’d essentially create a living room setting,” she says, imagining a theater with plush, lounge seating.As a private events space, Adams Avenue Theater will offer packages ranging from $5,500 to $10,500, but it will undoubtedly be the occasional public events that Normal Heights residents will appreciate most. “The more in-person, community stuff we can do, the better. It’s going to be for the neighborhood, and the businesses around us,” says Ziska.

The post Reviving the Historic Adams Ave Theater appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

Imperfects

James Lynch

It was June 2020, and Michael Lynch’s phone lit up with notifications: an Instagram tag in Thrasher, another in Gear Patrol, Cool Material. Then, SURFER calls. Can they speak with the brains behind the art of Imperfects, the account catching all the attention? It’s a modern-day technological love story.

Imperfects, founded by Lynch, is a lifestyle brand run out of an office-cum-storefront in Liberty Station. The brand sells top-of-the-line custom surfboards, skateboards, and stylish, monochromatic unisex apparel built to last. The two things that really broke the internet are his signature asymmetrical surfboards, shaped by hand, and Imperfects’ Shepherds Shirt, best described as a sexy, smart smock for grown-ups.

A handful of years back, he started a creative agency focused on sustainable and outdoors-oriented lifestyle and apparel brands. Lynch started shaping surfboards for fun, which naturally led to making skateboards. Ever the creative mind, he began designing clothes that spoke to the lifestyle of those sports, using second-use, high-quality fabric he sourced from his contacts in the garment industry.

Imperfects-Retail-Store

James Lynch

True to the Imperfects moniker, it was more an undefined creative outlet than a side hustle. He tinkered with it, quietly assembling a plan piece-by-piece while running the agency and building a home with his wife and two kids in Point Loma (Lynch grew up in North County).

But that day in 2020, he realized it was “time to give Imperfects the full go.” He was able to hit the ground running thanks to the back stock he’d built up over the years, a made-to-order collection at the ready.

What followed was selling out across product lines, a bi- coastal pop-up collab with Ilegal Mezcal, being carried in Nordstrom’s top five busiest stores in the U.S., and a cult-following sneaking up on the mainstream. Imperfects surfboards have been commissioned by crusty Moonlight Beach locals and home collectors alike, who both use the pieces in the water and as art.

imperfects

Titus Huag

More growth is coming, Lynch assures. He thinks back to a conversation he had with a friend some years back: “We were saying, ‘Will our art ever get out there? Are we just not ballsy enough to put it out there? Are we afraid of judgment?’ The answer was ‘yes’ to all that—we didn’t think we would ever be seen.”

Leave it to the internet to fix that in short order.

Imperfects.MikeLynch-21.jpg

Imperfects Mike Lynch

James Lynch

Imperfects-Retail-Store, liberty

James Lynch

Imperfects.Stab

Imperfects.Stab

James Lynch

The post The Almost Perfect World of Michael Lynch appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

Fish & Co owner

Molly Rose Photo

Fish & Co. may not be the most intuitive name for an on-the-verge interior design studio. For Lisa Carolla, however, the moniker is entirely logical. Her grandfather owned L.A. Fish and Oyster Co. on the Los Angeles harbor.

fireclay tile

“It was honest, salt of the earth, and centered around people,” says Carolla, who grew up in San Pedro and moved to Encinitas four years ago. “It’s always been a goal of mine to run a small business that was at least half as good as his, so I took exactly half of his business name.”

Driven by a desire to do right by the seaside environment that raised her, Carolla tackles her residential and hospitality projects with her unique set of sustainability values, and an aesthetic inspired by her coastal upbringing. “I like to joke that my style is ‘mid-century maritime chic’, but it’s actually a pretty accurate description,” she says.

“The colors and materials I love the most are reminiscent of modern design during surfing’s heyday in the 70s, the color palettes of low tide walks, and funky items you might find on a fishing boat.” Current projects include a Scandinavian-inspired new build in Asheville, North Carolina; the restoration of a 1920s Santa Barbara carriage house that she is gently reworking to function for modern life; and her homebase is a 1940s cottage that serves as a lab for eco-artistry.

By KVP: The San Diego-based fashion brand creates linen loungewear in small batches to reduce waste. 

Her ethos has drawn her to a diverse network of local creators who tread lightly while making big statements. She works to find new ways to reuse building materials while sourcing one-of-a-kind gems secondhand. For this lifelong surfer, a big part of reducing waste is being thoughtful about the longevity of a space.

“In real life, we see starting from scratch as a disadvantage, but in the design industry, it’s where most people choose to start. My philosophy is that we get something truly unique and inspired when we start from a place of valuing what’s already there,” says the designer. “Well-built, well-designed spaces that consider their community are the ones that stand the test of time.”

MUSHLOOM LIGHTING: This is sustainability to the max: These stunning lights are grown from mushrooms.

MITCHELL BLACK: “Nomalanga in Terracotta” wallcovering by Forbes + Master.

FORBES & LOMAX: Aged brass switch plate in one of Lisa’s latest projects.

JOGLO LIVING: Handmade woven copper pendant light made in Sumba, Indonesia.

JACK ANTAL: The San Diego artist creates timeless black and white photography with 10 percent of all profits going to Outside the Bowl.

STONESTEPS HERBARIUM: This Encinitas artist makes one-of-a-kind pieces from dried seaweed found on low-tide coastal walks.

The post Fish & Co.’s Quest to Preserve The Planet appeared first on San Diego Magazine.