which the hydraulic stage is shown raised into place from its position in the smaller theater auditorium in the space below.
This drawing indicates the spaces available under the inclined seats which are utilized for cloak rooms, smoking rooms, dressing rooms, storage and other purposes, the relation of the outer corridors to the main memorial floor at each story, and illustrates how the spectators can enter and leave the seat locations by various levels. The auditorium staircases are arranged in four stair wells, separated both from the auditorium and the enclosing building, but available for use from both, thus making for economy in construction and safety in case of panic or fire. The entire construction, of course, would only be undertaken on the most permanent and indestruct
ible basis, and the treatment of the auditorium itself would be simple yet dignified, adapted to supply appropriate surroundings for important civic meetings and the .best acoustic results.
Such an auditorium as is here described should become an important element in the development of a city and in the lives of its future citizens. It provides a place for important conventions; for large choral entertainments and concerts, a space in which reunions or reviews of soldiers and sailors could be held, with ample room remaining for spectators. The floor, eighty by one hundred and fifty feet, could be used for dancing, for large pageants, and for many other purposes. Its level could be made to change easily so as to help sight lines for public meetings or dramatic performances. One end, including the speaker’s rostrum and a portion of the floor is arranged as the roof of a huge elevator car, 90 feet wide and 40 feet deep, which can be
raised above the floor level, bringing up from its position in a smaller theater auditorium beneath a completely equipped and permanently constructed stage, with proscenium, boxes and fly gallery, all ready for large operatic and dramatic performances. The seats in front of the stage when at the lower level would accommodate about fifteen hundred spectators, and while the gallery would be entered from the lower street level, the lower floor would be—as in English theaters—below the level of the street.
Situated at the rear of the left wing is a smaller music theater, similarly entered from the rear street, which, with its balcony, would seat between nine hundred and one thousand people. This auditorium could be used by singers and other soloists,
and for chamber music, for Greek plays and graduation exercises. It should also be noted that all three of these elements, the auditorium, music theater and banquet hall, will help provide the material income necessary to maintain and make freer public use of the structure.
The remainder of the basement space, extending partly beneath the floor of the main auditorium, is given to swimming pools, shower baths, bowling alleys, and certain exercise rooms and courts for recreation purposes, available for the Service Club in the evenings and for students in the daytime. A restaurant is also provided in connection with the kitchen in the basement, which is also used to serve the banquets given in the large ballroom on the floor above.
The Memorial Pantheon is actually intended for the State Memorial—being essentially a “Hall of Flags”—and it is intended to be kept entirely free