Haight-Ashbury Landmark to Become New Music and Culture Center

A local music school and Seattle radio station are partnering with SF Heritage to turn a 1960s Haight-Ashbury landmark into a music and culture hub with a rooftop venue, broadcast facilities, and music education.

The historic Doolan-Larson Building on the corner of Haight and Ashbury streets is set for a new chapter as San Francisco Heritage works with Seattle’s KEXP independent radio station and SF’s Blue Bear School of Music to transform the property into a cultural and music center, as the Chronicle reports. The project will bring live performances, radio broadcasting, and music education to the property, while preserving portions of the historic building.

SF Heritage has owned and stewarded the property since 2017, when longtime resident and owner Norm Larson donated it to the organization. Since then, SF Heritage has operated an artist-in-residence program there, but that program will end as part of the new partnership.

The Doolan-Larson House, which housed Haight-Ashbury’s first hippie boutique, is considered an important site in the history of the Haight-Ashbury counterculture. According to a news release, SF Heritage spent years seeking partners and developing plans for an adaptive reuse of the property, and will continue working with KEXP and Blue Bear in the coming months to determine the project’s feasibility, financing, and construction plans, with community input.

Early plans from global architecture firm Gensler and historic preservation firm Page & Turnbull call for a contemporary addition above the three retail spaces along Haight Street, north of the main house. The addition would likely include a rooftop venue for concerts and community events.

The Chronicle reports that the second floor would retain three rooms largely intact while converting them into rehearsal spaces for Blue Bear School of Music. KEXP also plans to have a broadcast booth on the second floor, where DJs could play vinyl while looking out over Haight Street. SF Heritage Executive Director Woody LaBounty said the organization would help the existing shops relocate.

“The thing that is important to us is that it’s on the most famous intersection in the world, so we want to do it justice,” LaBounty said.

KEXP, which began in 1972 as a 10-watt station called KCMU founded by four University of Washington journalism students, now has about 35,000 individual donors. Per the Chronicle, the organization previously raised $16 million to build a broadcast studio and music center in Seattle, a model KEXP CEO Ethan Raup said helped turn its online audience into a physical community.

The station began expanding its Bay Area presence in late 2023 after acquiring local hip-hop station 92.7 KREV FM at a bankruptcy auction. The station officially launched in the spring of 2024, adding a local broadcast operation to the Seattle-based nonprofit’s global audience.

“We are deeply inspired by the prospect of establishing a lasting partnership with SF Heritage and Blue Bear School of Music, built on our shared commitment to culture, legacy, and the unique identity of this iconic intersection,” said Raup. 

Blue Bear, meanwhile, opened in San Francisco in 1971 and has been based at Fort Mason since 1978. The school provides more than 1,000 free music programs each year through underserved neighborhoods and the San Francisco Unified School District.

Blue Bear Executive Director Steve Savage said the organizations share roots in the cultural changes of the late 1960s, while approaching music from different directions.

“Both KEXP and Blue Bear are about appreciating music and developing music, but from different angles,” said Savage. “By selecting this project, SF Heritage is opening a space for us to create a complete music ecosystem: one that combines broadcasting, performance, discovery, education, and community under one roof.”

The project is expected to require a significant fundraising effort, with KEXP anticipating that construction costs will exceed the $16 million raised for its Seattle facility a decade ago, as the Chronicle reports. KEXP’s Bay Area advancement team said early conversations with potential donors have been promising.

The building’s existing features, including high ceilings and extensive woodwork, could also give the future music center unique acoustics. Savage said the attic is particularly notable because Larson, its previous owner, once held chamber music recitals there.

Raup said the organization intends to approach the project with an emphasis on preserving the property’s history.

“We approach this opportunity with profound respect for the stewardship required to preserve and uphold both the tangible structure of the Doolan-Larson buildings, and the living counterculture of Haight-Ashbury,” Raup said.