Rivian Restores, Reopens Laguna Beach Landmark

Laguna Beach’s South Coast Theater opened in 1934 as the New Lynn Theatre. The two-story building was the first concrete and steel building constructed in the Pacific Ocean adjacent town and is considered one of the most historic sites in the city.

Over the last three years, electric vehicle maker Rivian has been working to breathe new life into the theater, which showed its last film in 2015.

Rivian South Coast Theater will be the company’s first flagship retail location in Southern California when it opens on December 9, and it serves as more than just a show house for the company’s R1T battery-electric pickup truck and R1S three-row electric sport utility vehicle (SUV).

The retail outpost is designed to be a community hub, displaying vehicles and hosting events that celebrate the company’s core tenants, creativity and adventure.

“This project is about bringing a Laguna landmark back to life, deepening our roots in Laguna and building something our community can enjoy for years to come. We wanted to create a space that was inviting and inspirational, blending the historic grandeur with local and vintage pieces that speak to our brand and mission,” Denise Cherry, Rivian’s senior director of design and retail development told Newsweek.

Multi-year renovations and site-sensitive restoration have preserved much of the structure’s original exterior and interior features. The theater’s marquee, ticket booth, lobby, balcony, auditorium, proscenium arch and 129-seat theater have all been revived.

Rivian South Coast Theater was added to the National Register of Historic Places in March 2023.

Walking inside the theater reveals the multipurpose space has seamlessly blended local culture with Rivian vehicles. It’s nothing like a typical car dealership and instead serves as a pivot point where the brand plays host to the community’s interests and activities.

R1T and R1S are displayed at the center of the theater, surrounded by brand merchandise, goods by local artisans and a Gear Shop that offers up an exclusive collaboration between Orange County-based Almond Surfboards and the automaker.

Equator Coffees serves as the on-site café, marking their first outpost in Orange County, California. The women-founded and owned wholesale coffee roaster has other shops in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas, and owns their own coffee farm.

Seating has been designed by Dirk van der Kooji. Examples of the “low-res” 3D-printed “Chubby Chair” and “Stopstool Chair” can be found throughout the hall and theater. They’ve been created from 10 kilograms of plastic that came from chipped and recycled refrigerator parts.

The establishment’s curtains are by Mafia Bags, a San Francisco-based company that worked with Rivian to create up-cycled sailcloth that serve as space dividers, surfaces for projection and layers of visual texture.

Los Angeles-based Suay Sew Shop was enlisted to create floor cushions and pillows. The company is a vertical sewing and production shop that prioritizes up-cycling.

Landscape muralist Ariel Lee was enlisted to create new works for the space that pay homage to the theater’s original plain-air style murals. Lee’s murals, titled Laguna Beach (1:00pm), 2023, and Desert Yuccas (San Gorgonio in the Distance), 2023, are both flashe on canvas.

The Laguna Beach project is part of a larger buildout of Rivian Spaces, showrooms for the company’s product portfolio. Locations in Los Angeles, New York City, Atlanta, Nashville and Denver areas are already open and other California spaces are coming soon.

“Rivian spaces are entirely designed by our in-house creative studio, a diverse team of designers, architects, strategists, sustainability experts, engineers, project managers and producers. This allows us to ensure that every physical experience represents the brand and mission in ways that are authentically Rivian. By designing every touchpoint, we build a uniquely consistent vision, despite a wide variety of cities, building types, and scales,” Cherry said.