Even before the transformed Presidio Theatre opens to the public next fall, it has made a contribution to the San Francisco/Presidio community. When we looked around the site the other day, Bob Martin, executive director of the theater, said that dirt dug out in order to create a lower level under the theater was moved and used in the area that will be the Tunnel Tops.

This synchronicity seems in keeping with the spirit of Margaret Haas, whose foundation, with the approval of the Presidio Trust, is financing the rebuilding of the theater, unused for anything since 1994. The project, approved by the Presidio Trust in 2017, will wind up costing about $35 million.

It would have been cheaper to tear down the building and start fresh, said Plant Construction Co. assistant project manager Chris Alvino, who was just locking up the place when we visited. His obvious pride, and Martin’s, demonstrated how glad he was to contribute to this much more complicated undertaking.

The theater opened in 1939, as a movie house — with occasional live radio broadcasts — for troops in the Presidio. Bob Hope performed for the boys, and “The Jell-O Program Starring Jack Benny” was performed live. The graceful Spanish colonial style of the building is in keeping with the Presidio architecture, and it can’t be changed.

That makes the massive remodeling/building project — making the space usable for live theater means deepening the stage, constructing rehearsal space, adding dressing rooms, rest rooms, modern ventilation, accessibility for the disabled, concession space and an outdoor plaza that can seat 200 at dinner — even more difficult for the architects, Hornberger + Worstell.

Martin, who after the theater opens will be responsible for booking programming and running the place, showed us around with great enthusiasm, pointing out new structural elements, the remnants of the edge of the old stage, the lay of the newly made land, the raked area where 650 or so seats will eventually be installed. He presided over a similar project at the Lensic Performing Arts Center, a nonprofit in downtown Santa Fe, N.M.

The Presidio will seat 650, putting it between the Herbst (which seats 892), YBCA (757), and the Cowell (437). “We want it to be affordable, accessible, a wow space,” said Martin, who is hoping to program a variety of entertainment options — live performance, film, lectures — as well as provide reasonably priced space for other nonprofits to use for special events.

Benefactor Haas, who lives in Marin County, stops by at the Presidio about once a week, peeking at the progress being made and dropping off cookies and treats for the construction workers; some 60 to 80 are on the job every day. “She knows the guys and bakes for them,” said Martin.

The original owner of the Lensic in Santa Fe had held a contest in which the public was asked to create names for the place based on the first initials of his grandchildren. Peggy Haas is not interested in such expressions of ego. She wanted the theater she’s financed to bear no name but its original: Presidio Theatre. Name or no name, “it will be her legacy,” said Martin.

•Bumper sticker wisdom: Spotted by Nancy Friedman in a parking lot at Mills College: “Don’t even think about dating my daughter; think about dating me, her closeted gay Dad.” And from Art Valencia in the North Country: “Any Functioning Adult 2020.”

•Alonzo King Lines Ballet has been invited to perform in Paris at ceremonies marking the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For a performance called “Wake of Humanity,” the troupe will perform “Writing Ground,” choreographed by King. While in Europe, King will also take part in Art Lab, at which international artists will talk about their works and their personal growth at UNESCO Headquarters next Tuesday, Dec. 11.

Roberta Brouhard, born male, was having lunch at a crowded Noodle City in downtown Davis with her granddaughter Carolin Sophia, to whom she’s Grandma Bertie.

Mid-lunch, Carolin “looked up from her bowl of ramen, stared at me and rather emphatically asked, ‘Grandma Bertie, do you have a penis?’ I replied, ‘I did.’

“She, and the other diners, then immediately and disinterestedly resumed slurping their noodles.”

PUBLIC EAVESDROPPING

“It really bothers me that my belly button isn’t perfect.”

Woman to women, overheard at lunch in Palo Alto by Elaine Kriegh

Leah Garchik is open for business in San Francisco, 415-777-8426. Email: lgarchik@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @leahgarchik