HGTV’S NICOLE CURTIS CALLS OUT SALT LAKE CITY MAYOR ERIN MENDENHALL FOR PRESSING FORWARD WITH DEMOLITION OF HISTORIC 103-YEAR-OLD UTAH PANTAGES THEATER!
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – June 23, 2021 – After 118 episodes and over 10 years inspiring millions worldwide with her show “Rehab Addict/Rehab Addict Rescue”, Historic Expert and Preservationist Nicole Curtis has now joined the multi-year extensive local effort to save, protect, and fully restore Salt Lake City’s most treasured movie palace “The Utah Pantages Theatre”. On a recent trip to Salt Lake City, Nicole was contacted by “Save the Utah Pantages” to inform her of the theater’s upcoming demolition. A Detroit native, Nicole has lead dozens of restoration projects in her home town as well as Minneapolis. Forever a lover of history, architecture, and authentic old buildings, Nicole utilizes her expertise on a national level to advocate for historic preservation throughout the country, spreading knowledge and understanding wherever she travels. Nicole has publicly and privately asked to act as a liaison between city and preservationists to find a solution with no response from Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall or any member of Salt Lake City Council. She will be returning to Salt Lake City immediately to speak directly with city representatives to halt this deal and save the theater.
At 103-years-old, the Utah Pantages is one of the oldest and most grand movie palaces in America and part of a greater Pantages Theater family all across America and Canada. In an article from the Salt Lake Telegram dating back to 1919 during the Pantages’ construction, the theater was described “as one of the most magnificent and modern in the country” including one of the largest Warren Trusses that were in existence at the time and was in fact one of the first buildings to have air conditioning in America. Built for an estimated cost of $2.25 million (over $40 million today) the Utah Pantages was also one of the most expensive and opulent in the greater Pantages family. Considered the “Versace” of theaters at their time, Alexander Pantages hired the architect B. Marcus Priteca to design his theaters in the Italian Renaissance style with a Tiffany glass skylight, golden and detailed ornamentation, vast hallways with Alaskan marble flooring, and seating for a cool 2,300. The Utah Pantages is a grand movie palace in every sense of the word, not even rivaled by her sister Pantages theaters. The current condition of the theater is in significantly superior shape to many other historic theaters throughout the nation before their successful and cost-effective restorations, including the freshly restored Apple Tower Theater in Los Angeles.
https://www.apple.com/retail/towertheatre/
Nicole joins the efforts of “Save the Utah Pantages” who have worked tirelessly for the last two years to bring awareness to the theater, halt the current deal to destroy it, and see it saved to be restored into an international Sundance theater for cinema and film. Nicole brings her years of expertise as well as a national spotlight to a theater long since kept in the dark. This attention also went global this last week with the story of the Utah Pantages traveling all the way to London.
https://monocle.com/radio/shows/the-globalist/2531/ (Listen at 53:20)