Draft:Quarry Amphitheater

                                                             Quarry

Quarry Amphitheater in the day

STS9 performing at The Quarry Amphitheater in 2022

The Quarry Amphitheater is a 2,800 capacity outdoor events and concert venue located in the heart of the University of California Santa Cruz. First used as a major supplier of limestone in the 1800s, the quarry would be reimagined as an amphitheater during the construction of UC Santa Cruz in the early 1960s Since then, it has gone through a major reconstruction in 2017 and has become home to a number of campus events as well as hosting major musical acts as a professional large-scale concert venue. Acts who have performed include Chicano Batman, Carla Morrison, and Orion Sun.

History

The Quarry Amphitheater first functioned as a limestone quarry in the mid-1800s as part of the Cowell Lime Works where the extracted lime would be sent off to areas around the Bay, especially San Francisco, where it was used for constructing buildings. After some decades in use, Henry Cowell's son Harry shut down production of the lime kilns in about 1920, effectively decommissioning the use of the space.

With the construction of the main UC Santa Cruz campus finished in 1965, Robert Royston and his architect firm- Royston, Hanamoto, Mayes & Beck- were commissioned in 1966 to construct the quarry as a central space for the campus to use for events. Thus, the concept for the quarry as an amphitheater began, with construction finishing soon afterwards in 1967. On completion, the space was used to host a variety of events and guest speakers such as graduation, local music performances, Alex Haley, and future UCSC-faculty Angela Davis.

Use of the space was strong for some decades, but as time went on, it was used less and less. Eventually, it fell into a state of decay where it was promptly abandoned in 2006 due to being considered a safety hazard.

Restoration

In 2014, interest to revive the venue spurred and around $6.38 million was raised from student fee reserves, as well as an additional $1.4 million dollars from the vice chancellor, totaling to an approximately $8 million renovation that begin in late 2016 and finished in fall of 2017. This renovated version of the venue featured a brand new and expanded bench seating layout of up to 2,700 people, paved roads for gear load-ins, a brand new 34' x 40' stage truss system for lighting and audio, and programmable house lighting.

To commemorate the opening of the revitalized Quarry Amphitheater, a private student concert was held on October 14, 2017 where Chicano Batman performed.