Cosmopolitan
1000 K Street
Sacramento, California
Tel: 916-557-1999
Designer: WRNS Studio

Long abandoned, the 1956 Woolworth building in downtown Sacramento has been reinvented as the Cosmopolitan. The 50,000-square-foot mixed-use building, which was once fronted by a drab Woolworth’s pharmacy, now contains the California Musical Theater’s 200-plus seat live cabaret and the Cosmo Cafe restaurant on the ground floor, as well as the Social Nightclub and commercial office space on the second floor. The firm gave the building what one person has described as “a facelift worthy of Joan Collins.” It opened up the structure by glazing the ground floor and by removing exterior walls at the second-floor corner overlooking the intersection of 10th and K streets, creating a large patio for the nightclub. The project is one of several engines for the redevelopment of the K Street corridor, Sacramento’s emerging downtown entertainment district. That area also contains several new restaurants and entertainment venues.