Bend’s largest auditorium will be demolished this summer.

For decades Bend High School’s 1,400-seat auditorium hosted Central Oregon Symphony concerts, Central Oregon School of Ballet recitals and Deschutes Public Library events, such as Author! Author!.

On Monday, Bend-La Pine Schools officials announced the auditorium had been deemed unsafe and was set to be demolished over the rest of the summer.

Those local organizations knew that the space would be out of commission due to the recently begun 4-year renovation at the high school and started planning accordingly to use smaller venues.

Monday’s news was a surprise to all.

A little over a year ago, structural engineers had determined the auditorium was safe, according to school officials. Structural engineers recently found fractures in the trusses that support the auditorium’s roof after an inspection. Officials have decided to move forward with demolishing the building instead of renovating it due to safety concerns.

“Nothing was going to be in place even in those next three or four years even if a miracle happened. We all knew that because of the size of the venue — the 1,400 seat venue — there’s no other comparable, existing stage system,” said Michael Gesme, music director for the symphony. “One of the things that Bend High has going for it, even though there’s not hundreds of users who need that many seats, for those of us who do, it is a colossal gem because of its size.”

The symphony has used Bend High’s auditorium for the past 27 years. When it was only going to be renovated, Gesme was considering the auditoriums at Ridgeview, Caldera and Mountain View high schools as “temporary fixes” until the auditorium was up and running again. The loss of the Bend High space until another is built is bittersweet, said Gesme.

“It’s pretty dear to my heart and for those of us who do the arts to have to wrestle with the closing of a venue. The last 20 years, it’s been a golden era of the use of that space, the amount of really amazingly cool programs that have happened there,” said Gesme. “That’s just been so precious for the orchestra and so precious for “The Nutcracker” and so precious for things like when we have major guest speakers or the TedX programs. They just fill the place to the rafters.”

Gesme thinks it’s likely the symphony will add at least one performance per season to the schedule to ensure as many people who want to attend have the chance. One of the symphony’s missions is to make concerts available to everyone, and with a smaller venue that becomes more difficult, he said. He is hopeful that the rebuilt auditorium at Bend High will be able to serve larger audiences.

The Central Oregon School of Ballet has used the auditorium for 37 years for performances of “The Nutcracker,” “Giselle,” “Coppelia,” “Sleeping Beauty” and others. Since Bend High isn’t always available, the school has also used Caldera High, Ridgeview High and Mountain View High in the past.

“It’s been very special part of many memories that lots of kids have had,” said Josh Deininger, owner and artistic director of the Central Oregon School of Ballet. “The real loss is that Bend High auditorium is the largest stage in Central Oregon and it also has the largest auditorium. It seats 1,440 audience members, and all the other theaters in town seat 600. In terms of capacity, what you can get into one show just is unmatched by Bend High.”

Deschutes Public Library held a Novel Idea event in the Caldera High auditorium in June. It seats less than half the people that Bend High does, said Chantal Strobel, the library’s assistant director of community engagement.

“Bend High auditorium has served our communities for many decades, and it will be sorely missed,” wrote Strobel in an email. “There isn’t another venue that offers the number of seats we need for our very popular community events.”

Other well-known venues in Central Oregon hold a smaller number of people than Bend High’s auditorium. Tower Theater has 460 seats, while the Midtown Ballroom has a capacity of 1,000. The Central Library at Stevens Ranch, currently under construction, is planned to have a large meeting space with seating for 350 people.

The next steps

Demolition may begin this week. The plan is to have the area cleared completely before students return to class in September, wrote Scott Maben, communications director for the district.

Engineers examined the roof structures in April 2023 and didn’t notice any problems. The district has not yet determined the cause of the current fractures.

The auditorium was set to be renovated in 2026 as part of the 4-year renovation. Until a new auditorium is built, district officials will help develop a plan to move auditorium functions, such as high school theater programs and band and choir concerts, to different locations.

Bend High auditorium has water and structural damage, says district

School district prepares to give aging Bend High a major facelift