I remember going to take a look at the Pan Pacific building in the 80s (I had recently heard that The American Cinematheque was going to take it over for their organization's use, so I was curious to finally see this famed building before any remodeling). Frankly, I was pretty disappointed. Though the entrance and ticket booths, etc., that everyone sees in the photos were, of course, very charming and evocative (though in severe disrepair), the rest of the building simply looked like the outside of a Walmart. No, really, it was just an ordinary auditorium building, just like any other you've ever seen. (The building was shuttered up so I couldn't see the inside.) Though not particularly happy when I heard that the building burned down later (under mysterious circumstances), I really wasn't all that upset because I knew that the only significant portion (I felt) that was lost was the entrance area, which I knew could easily be duplicated at little expense if the building was ever rebuilt. I mean, it wasn't as if they spent an arm and a leg when they originally built the auditorium, so recreating it wouldn't have been difficult or prohibitively expensive. I will admit, then, that it's a shame they didn't do so in the end.
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