London lost its theatre district to the 'burbs

The destruction of the Capitol Theatre in London, Ontario, has taken me deep into the realm of "Welcome to the Third World". There are just so many better ways to use an essentially abandoned movie theatre than demolishing it for a parking lot.

When I moved to London there were three downtown movie theatres. Today there are actually more when you count all the screens at the Rainbow Cinema on the second floor of the Citi Plaza. Yet, I feel, and I think accurately that as a community we are poorer for the loss of those three Dundas Street movie palaces.

But, and this is the frightening idea, maybe we are not poorer. Maybe the reason they are gone is that we, as a community, are poor, and getting poorer with every passing year.

Maybe we lost them because we could not afford to keep them. Maybe we need to stem the economic bleeding in our community, return Londoners to a firm financial footing and then maybe we can then consider building a new and gorgeous performing arts centre.

If saving the Bowles facade taught us anything, it is that beautiful buildings are just that, beautiful buildings. We built 'em, we tear 'em down, and we can build 'em again if we want. We just have to have the bucks and the will.

This is the Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore. It has a bit of the feel of London Ontario's Grand Theatre, yes? This is but one of many old movie theatres across North America truly saved from the wrecker's ball.

So many places have saved their theatres. It is time to stop taking such deep bows for saving a facade, and not even all of that.

More brick-a-brac from readers

Attention: Rockinon

Was reading your "Irreplaceable Buildings. Can't be made today" blog. Actually the title should be "Irreplaceable FACADES" and in the case of the Bowles facade maybe not so irreplaceable since not much of the skin seems to have been saved.

Anonymous


Toshtensen send this comment and I added the art:

In Indianapolis the Indiana Theatre was remodelled into multiple stages for the Indianapolis Repertory Theater and the Circle Theater is being use as a concert hall for the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.





On non-performance dates Circle Theatre is available for meetings, seminars, receptions, concerts, or other functions.

Photo credit (left): Jason Young

What happened in Lansing is unfortunate, because the office building destroyed the theater portion of the building and the arcade of shops that was inside the entrance.

The State Theater in Ann Arbor was made into a clothing store, while the Michigan Theater is still operating.



(My add: The Michigan Theatre has a good Internet site complete with a photo tour of the theatre today. It is interesting to note that the Michigan has only a few hundred more seats than London's now demolished Capitol Theatre.

The State Theatre in Ann Arbor was designed by the same architect who designed the Capitol Theatre in London, Ontario, of which only the facade minus the marquee canopy remains.

In 1979 the State was chopped into four separate screening room with two on the main floor and another two sharing the balcony space. Not ten years later, Urban Outfitters took over the main floor of the theatre and gutted it for a clothing store.

According to Wikipedia, the two balcony theatres are still in use. Remnants of the original architecture are still visible throughout the building.

Thoughts from a reader on the saving of historic theatres

To: Rockinon

I am sending you some examples of theaters in Chicago that have been restored (exterior and interiors!). Chicago utilized sponsors to help with the funding to restore the historic character of the theaters. The corporations add their names to the theatre's. This is probably not as viable a funding tactic in today's financial climate.

These are images of the Oriental Theatre, both inside and out..



This is another theatre interior.

Signed,
Anonymous.







My question: Would the City of London been wiser to have spent more time on the Performing Arts Centre proposal, putting their support there rather that in the simple, but effective, save-the-look approach? Remember, it's the city behind the facade. Without the city as a 20-year tenant, the facade restoration would most likely never have been done.

Irreplaceable Buildings. Can't be made today.

 It's a heartwarming story.

"The Capitol Theatre and Bowles building, once thought to be too derelict to restore, have made majestic comebacks on London's Dundas Street, breathing new life into a block of core buildings between Clarence and Richmond streets that badly need a new draw." - The London Free Press

The story is made all the more powerful when one recalls the words of developer Shmuel Farhi: "We purchased the building (Capitol Theatre) solely to provide parking . . . "

Actually, he got his parking. After acquiring the property, Farhi razed the theatre. The auditorium is gone.

Oh well, no loss. What use could a city find for a 1400 seat auditorium? There are some who think it would have made a fine performing arts centre. A 1400 seat PAC needs parking, and the closer the better. Well, PAC got its parking, lots of it, and it couldn't be closer. PAC got the parking it needed, but lost the auditorium. You can't win 'em all.

"Two side-by-side downtown London historic gems that came close to a date with the wrecker's ball have returned to their former glory." - The London Free Press

To be completely honest, the remaining Capitol Building, mostly an ornate foyer, was the victim of "demolition light." The shell was left intact but the interior detailing was removed and donated to renovation projects at the Palace Theatre and the Aeolian Hall.

O.K., we lost the theatre and we lost the foyer but at least we kept the two facades.

" . . . these buildings were originally written off, considered too expensive to restore." - Paul Berton, The London Free Press

Well, the naysayers were proven wrong, right? Well, not completely.

"The Bowles used to have a terracotta front, but 80% of the 400 tiles were damaged. The decision was made to change all of it to stone that was meticulously carved. " - The London Free Press

O.K. The naysayers were right. It was too expensive to restore; they rebuilt it. It is now brand new. It was cheaper.

We lost the theatre, the foyer, and the Bowles Building facade is essentially new. It is a new facing in limestone and not antique terracotta. It could be erected anywhere - downtown, uptown, White Oaks Mall.

As The London Free Press tells us, there is "potential in heritage buildings, not simply because they're old (in fact, in spite of it) but because they are unique and interesting . . . "

And they just don't make buildings like the Capitol and the Bowles anymore. Right? No craftsmen left, dying art, lost skills, and all that... Right? You just have to love these old, unique, irreplaceable buildings. Hey, when they're gone they're gone. Impossible to replace.

Now, about that Capitol Theatre front and the missing marquee . . .
_____________________________________________________
Obviously, the truth is if you want the look of your downtown back, go for it. The skills needed to build old-looking stuff, especially facades, are still around; It is just expensive. Shmuel Farhi will tell you that.

Let's stop all the silly irreplaceable jewels stuff. I've heard of art deco, and art nouveau, and Victorian but I have never heard of jewel. You want it? Design it and build it. Have a style, an approach, and adhere to it.

All the fawning talk over heritage buildings that are often the newest construction on the block is silly. You know, if there is one word I would never use for Shmuel Farhi it is fawning. He's pragmatic. And oddly enough, parking lots and all, the city may be better off because of it.

The Palace and the Aeolian Hall owners may agree as they benefited from his pragmatism.

Layoff Rumours

Yesterday I had my greatest number of hits. (Just goes to show if you've got some news, you've got gold. My Rockinon blogs themselves racked up hundred and hundreds of hits from all over Canada and my other endeavours went easily into the three digits, too.) For a few names and a goodbye to those talented people leaving the paper go to this link.

I assume that many of the Rockinon hits were from people who work for Sun Media / Quebecor and were either facing or fearing layoffs.

I am hearing stuff but few want to be specific. This morning I got this e-mail:

"I've heard you can add at least Simcoe and Brantford to the list too. Sad."

If you can add anything to this story, please drop me an e-mail. I'm not a paper but a blogger. I love anonymous.

And if you see errors, please let me know. I love editors and with the Internet everyone is a potential editor, catching errors and omissions. Someone caught a big one for me yesterday and I thank them. There were, and are, good reasons why newspapers once had so many editors.

If you haven't done so already, read my post "Vulgarians" and hit the link to the interview with Harold Evans that ran in The Globe and Mail.

Cheers,
Rockinon

p.s. Someday I'll talk about retirement and living on less than half the income that I once enjoyed. And I'll even give a few kudos to The London Free Press and to even Sun Media and Quebecor.

London, Ontario, blogger posts Chicago fire picture while blaze still going

The Internet has made the flow of information mind-boggling fast. A report on a high-rise fire Sunday afternoon in Chicago was being filed, complete with art, by a blogger in London, Ontario, shortly after the firefighters had the blaze under control. The blogger's contact in Chicago kept the Londoner up-to-date as the story unfolded.

The story is posted on the Digital Journal.

Vulgarians

I was reading the Toronto Sun Family blog and discovered this link to a Harold Evans interview by John Barber of The Globe and Mail.

Evans was the brilliant editor of The Sunday Times from 1967 to 1981. What does he think of the present cutbacks throughout the newspaper industry? Let me quote a few lines from the interview:

. . . Mr. Evans is scathing about contemporary papers that “lose their nerve” in response to tough times, especially by cutting editorial content, “the most stupid thing you can do.”

That strategy helped to lead the once-mighty Tribune Company, publisher of the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, into bankruptcy last year, part of a wave that has also immersed The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, The Orange County Register in California, the Chicago Sun-Times and The Star Tribune of Minneapolis.

Piecemeal cutting destroys integrity as surely as political interference, according to Mr. Evans. “There's no advertising to support the sports page,” he notes. “You won't dream of dropping the sports section, but they drop the book section. Why? Because they're vulgarians. Seriously. It's so shortsighted.”

Shortsighted? They're downright myopic in their lack of foresight.

And please note that "anonymous sub-editors (called copy editors in North America) merit long passages of lavish praise" in Evans' new book, My Paper Chase. These positions are some of the first to be slashed by today's newspaper owners.