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Demolition of the Ridge Shopping Centre begins -- artist's impression.[/caption]
The Ridge shopping Centre, situated on Arbutus Street, between 15th and 16th Avenue, is coming down soon, to make way for a condo. The Centre is particularly known for two original tenants: The Ridge movie theatre, and the Varsity Ridge bowling alley. The Ridge's neon, and bulb-lit sign, and the bowling alley's giant bowling pin, have both been area landmarks for some 63-years.
The Ridge theatre screened its last film a few months ago, and the supermarket space, has stood empty since speciality grocer Meinhardt Fine Foods left over a year ago (leaving them with their original South Granville store. Otherwise it's business-as-usual for the bowling alley, A McDonalds, a Chinese restaurant, a laundromat, yoga studio, and book store.
The Centre, which opened in 1950 (there's still original sidewalk embossed with that date) crowns a block of prime real estate which commands a stunning view North, South, and West. On those sides it is surrounded by residential neighbourhoods. Standing on the corner of Arbutus and 16th, looking South-West, you are looking out over a sea of new wealth -- well-to-do homes, cresting in a ridge, a few kilometres away, studded with mansions and gated estates of the truly wealthy. I've binned up there and it's really spiff; incredible sunrises and sunsets. Looking East -- just across Arbutus Street, in fact, you can almost see the unused Canadian Pacific Railroad (CPR) tracks, and the Western edge of old wealth -- Shaughnessy Heights, developed by the CPR in the first two decades of the 20th Century, and stuffed with mansions, imposing stone walls, 16-foot-high hedges, and nary 100-metres of straight road. The Ridge Centre sits in the middle of all this like a sun-dial.
Cressey Development Group bought the block-long property in June 2011, and is pre-selling condo units in its "Arbutus Ridge" development, which will include ground-level retail. As is the fashion in Vancouver real estate, when a developer eats the very old, it leaves one of the indigestible bits on display, ostensibly to pay respects to history, but it's really good marketing. In this case a facsimile of the movie theatre's sign will be a signature element of the building -- no word on the bowling pin though.
The Ridge Centre didn't have much chance of dodging the wrecking ball. It's old, but not that old, and most people in the area couldn't really care less.
The entire area, sedate as it looks, is undergoing dramatic demographic change, so there's less, to no, interest in the area's historic past. The newcomers, just like the old money, see the area as a place to live, not a place to go shopping -- they don't need local services. They will pile into their Lexi and Escalades, and shop where they please, thank you very much. They'd rather not have local shops, as they just attract people who do need that sort of thing (it's the same rationale Shaughnessy residents have used when explaining to me why they don't authorize their city tax dollars towards paving their lanes). Bad enough they have to have a gas station in the area!
Like most of Vancouver, I'll miss the Ridge theatre and the giant bowling pin. Everything else is available less than a kilometre away.
Demolition of the Ridge Shopping Centre begins -- artist's impression.[/caption]The Ridge shopping Centre, situated on Arbutus Street, between 15th and 16th Avenue, is coming down soon, to make way for a condo. The Centre is particularly known for two original tenants: The Ridge movie theatre, and the Varsity Ridge bowling alley. The Ridge's neon, and bulb-lit sign, and the bowling alley's giant bowling pin, have both been area landmarks for some 63-years.
The Ridge theatre screened its last film a few months ago, and the supermarket space, has stood empty since speciality grocer Meinhardt Fine Foods left over a year ago (leaving them with their original South Granville store. Otherwise it's business-as-usual for the bowling alley, A McDonalds, a Chinese restaurant, a laundromat, yoga studio, and book store.
The Centre, which opened in 1950 (there's still original sidewalk embossed with that date) crowns a block of prime real estate which commands a stunning view North, South, and West. On those sides it is surrounded by residential neighbourhoods. Standing on the corner of Arbutus and 16th, looking South-West, you are looking out over a sea of new wealth -- well-to-do homes, cresting in a ridge, a few kilometres away, studded with mansions and gated estates of the truly wealthy. I've binned up there and it's really spiff; incredible sunrises and sunsets. Looking East -- just across Arbutus Street, in fact, you can almost see the unused Canadian Pacific Railroad (CPR) tracks, and the Western edge of old wealth -- Shaughnessy Heights, developed by the CPR in the first two decades of the 20th Century, and stuffed with mansions, imposing stone walls, 16-foot-high hedges, and nary 100-metres of straight road. The Ridge Centre sits in the middle of all this like a sun-dial.
Cressey Development Group bought the block-long property in June 2011, and is pre-selling condo units in its "Arbutus Ridge" development, which will include ground-level retail. As is the fashion in Vancouver real estate, when a developer eats the very old, it leaves one of the indigestible bits on display, ostensibly to pay respects to history, but it's really good marketing. In this case a facsimile of the movie theatre's sign will be a signature element of the building -- no word on the bowling pin though.
The Ridge Centre didn't have much chance of dodging the wrecking ball. It's old, but not that old, and most people in the area couldn't really care less.
The entire area, sedate as it looks, is undergoing dramatic demographic change, so there's less, to no, interest in the area's historic past. The newcomers, just like the old money, see the area as a place to live, not a place to go shopping -- they don't need local services. They will pile into their Lexi and Escalades, and shop where they please, thank you very much. They'd rather not have local shops, as they just attract people who do need that sort of thing (it's the same rationale Shaughnessy residents have used when explaining to me why they don't authorize their city tax dollars towards paving their lanes). Bad enough they have to have a gas station in the area!
Like most of Vancouver, I'll miss the Ridge theatre and the giant bowling pin. Everything else is available less than a kilometre away.
Update, September 1, 2013, demolition begins ►
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