The Civic

This guide to The Civic in Auckland starts in nineteen ninety-three, when wrecking crews circled the theatre and a group called Friends of the Civic formed to stop the demolition. It reaches back to nineteen twenty-nine, when entrepreneur Thomas O'Brien opened it as an atmospheric picture palace built in under eight months, with a starlit plaster ceiling and clouds once drifted overhead by a hidden projector. Take a moment in the foyer to look at the seated Buddhas and twisted columns beneath the domed ceilings.