Lisner Auditorium extends the modernist ethos favored by its architect, Waldron Faulkner (1898-1978), who was born in Paris, France, educated at Yale University, and became influential in Washington, D.C., area architecture, where he designed numerous institutional and residential structures.

Marvin and Faulkner's one exception in this era is Hattie M. Strong Hall, designed in a Georgian style they thought appropriately "domestic" for a women's dormitory.

The "projecting box-like portico offers the only relief to the severe geometrical form of the building," with its "scale and abstracted columns echo[ing] classical qualities."

Lisner Auditorium's resonance with the 1938 and 1939 First Medal winners of the Beaux Arts Institute's Paris Prize Competitions speaks to its communication with international movements in architecture at the time.

In early October 1946, a group of white and Black ticket-holders, including the Dean of the Howard University Medical School, tried to attend a ballet performance but were denied entry based on race.

Days later, Ingrid Bergman, star of the opening play, Joan of Lorraine, publicly denounced GW's racial exclusion policy and circulated a protest letter signed by the cast.

As students began to call for the desegregation of the university itself, Marvin publicly defended segregation, and the Trustees did not drop the racial exclusion of African Americans until 1954.

[13] On December 14, 1963, Bob Dylan performed there on his first national tour outside of coffeehouses; the show sold out, and three rows of overflow seating was placed on stage behind the singer.

In the 1980s, Lisner hosted The Replacements, Alex Chilton, Billy Bragg, Midnight Oil, The Church, 10,000 Maniacs, Michelle Shocked, The BoDeans, Thomas Dolby, A Flock of Seagulls, and Red Hot Chili Peppers.