A copper dome and griffin-topped columns mark the Rose Blumkin Performing Arts Center, opened as The Riviera, later the Astro Theatre, and known to downtown Omaha simply as The Rose. Built in 1926 and designed by John Eberson, this building was created as an example of the 'atmospheric' theater popular in the 1920s—meant to make you feel like you were in a romantic outdoor Mediterranean courtyard beneath a night sky of twinkling stars and drifting clouds. The theater was constructed by A. H. Blank and, after opening on March 26, 1927, became noted for lavish stage shows combined with movies, regarded as one of the most elegant entertainment facilities in the Midwest with 2,776 seats.
The exterior you face blends Moorish and Classical styles: a large copper domed tower flanked by two smaller towers, diamond-patterned brick facades, oriel windows, elaborate cornices, glazed terra-cotta tile copings, and a series of free-standing columns that support griffins. The building was rehabilitated in 1986. Notice the griffin-topped columns and copper dome that survived a 1986 rehabilitation still crowning this Moorish and Classical corner.