Venice Pavilion’s Future Topic of Meeting Tonight

A final public meeting to discuss the future reuse of the Venice Pavilion will be held tonight, city officials said.

Suggestions for the use of the long-closed pavilion at the foot of Windward Avenue range from tearing down the structure to establishing a museum at the site, said project manager Kathleen Chan of the Recreation and Parks Department.

The pavilion, built in 1959 as a theater, was closed in the 1980s for safety reasons and remains vacant.

The future of the pavilion has been a subject of local concern and controversy for years, but Chan said she hopes the Venice community will reach consensus about the use of the site at the meeting tonight.

“The majority of the people are fair-minded, logical people involved in the process, and even if they don’t agree with [the final proposal] . . . they will at least perceive that they’ve been through a process.”

Department staff hope to present a report to the Recreation and Parks board next month.

The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at the Westminster Elementary School auditorium, 1010 Abbot Kinney Blvd.