John Eberson's atmospheric theatre: the auditorium is a Spanish courtyard at night, tiled roofs and balconies along the walls, a proscenium arch and a red curtain at the end, and over it all a deep blue sky with stars and drifting clouds. The works hang on the courtyard walls.
The Loew's Valencia at 165-11 Jamaica Avenue in Jamaica, Queens, was built in 1928 and opened in 1929 as the first of the five Loew's Wonder Theatres. Architect John Eberson, inventor of the atmospheric theater, gave it 3,554 seats and a brick and glazed terra cotta facade in the Spanish Baroque manner. It entertained Queens for half a century. Since 1977 it has housed the Tabernacle of Prayer for All People, and the city designated it a landmark on May 25, 1999.
Source · NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, LP-2036 ↗
The 1929 atmospheric auditorium: Spanish and Moorish courtyard facades with balconies, tiled roofs and corner towers, the proscenium arch, the blue plaster sky with its star bulbs and drifting clouds, the Wonder organ, and outside on Jamaica Avenue the Churrigueresque front of yellow brick and glazed terra cotta with its ticket booth and marquee. A 1929 inspired exhibition, not the present congregation's interior. Mood: 1929, the clouds are on. Everything is procedural geometry with painted surfaces; nothing is a scan or a photograph. The room is an interpretation, and it hangs the New Yorkers the census recorded at this place first.