[1] The brick and tile building is in the Lombard Romanesque style, and once functioned as the main classroom facility of the university and symbolized its academic and cultural aspirations.

The 1800-seat auditorium was designed for speech acoustics and not for music; by 1982 it emerged from successive remodelings as a regionally important concert hall and main performing arts facility of the university.

Named after Josiah Royce, a California-born philosopher who received his bachelor's degree from UC Berkeley in 1875, the building's exterior is composed of elements borrowed from numerous northern Italian sources.

Designed by architects Barton Phelps & Associates and Anshen + Allen Los Angeles and completed in 1998, the project combined structural strengthening and functional improvements with extensive interior updating.

Eligibility for National Register listing prompted FEMA earthquake resistance requirements well beyond normal safety levels and triggered close design scrutiny by preservation officers.

The new "soft" structure is designed to respond in unison with original masonry infill to provide maximum earthquake resistance and protect the building's historic fabric from damage.

Along with new ceiling coves, the galleries increase the volume of the hall by 40,000 cubic feet and lengthen its reverberation period by over a second at their maximum setting.

Unlike the former plaster interior, the new walls are clad in brick and terra cotta identical to that on the original exterior of the building.

Luminaries who have appeared on its stage include musicians George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, and Ella Fitzgerald,[6] and speakers Albert Einstein and John F.

"[8] In 1936, University of California President Robert Gordon Sproul appointed a committee to oversee programming and in 1937, Royce Hall's first performing arts season was born.

The first subscription series included the great contralto Marian Anderson, the Budapest String Quartet, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

In 1960, Henri Temianka founded and conducted his "Let's Talk Music" series at Royce Hall; this orchestra became the California Chamber Symphony (CCS), which gave more than 100 concerts over the ensuing 23 years, including premieres of major works by such composers as Aaron Copland, Dmitri Shostakovich, Darius Milhaud, Alberto Ginastera, Gian Carlo Menotti and Malcolm Arnold.

[13] Although not known for its acoustics prior to renovations in the 1980s,[14] Royce Hall was the venue for a number of landmark recordings of the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the direction of Zubin Mehta.