Showing posts with label Arbutus Ridge development. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arbutus Ridge development. Show all posts
How many people driving by this construction site will have already forgotten what used to be here?
It's probably about time to stop calling the crest at Arbutus Street and 16th Avenue the former site of the Ridge shopping centre. It is now the future site of Cressey's Arbutus Ridge condominium development. I say that without caring for it to be true.
I'll always miss the Ridge Centre. Over the course of 30 years, I shopped there, did my laundry there. went there with friends and by myself to see a lot of movies, and I ate a lot of meals there. I regret never trying the bowling alley.
It was a big old shopping mall with character that was associated with some of my fond memories. Now it only exists in my memory -- all the physical details I remember, down to the date stamped into original sidewalk on the south side: "1950" --all gone.
Soon to be replaced by an uninteresting condo for rich people. In three to ten years when it starts leaking I'll try not to feel good about it. Click the image to enlarge it.
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This is the back end which conveys the asphalt debris into a dump truck.[/caption]
This beast is a CMI PR-800-7/12 pavement profiler. Basically its used to plane the asphalt or concrete layer off of roadways, and parking lots -- like the one it's parked in, just across 15th Avenue from the demolition site that was the Ridge Centre. This lot was parking for the Ridge Centre. It's now been sold for development. Across Arbutus, is another Ridge parking lot. This one's the length of the block, straddling the alley. It has a development coming also. A slapped-together, temporary, sales centre, takes up half the lot, pre-selling imaginary condos.
This is the back end which conveys the asphalt debris into a dump truck.[/caption]This beast is a CMI PR-800-7/12 pavement profiler. Basically its used to plane the asphalt or concrete layer off of roadways, and parking lots -- like the one it's parked in, just across 15th Avenue from the demolition site that was the Ridge Centre. This lot was parking for the Ridge Centre. It's now been sold for development. Across Arbutus, is another Ridge parking lot. This one's the length of the block, straddling the alley. It has a development coming also. A slapped-together, temporary, sales centre, takes up half the lot, pre-selling imaginary condos.
At the mouth of the alley on the northeast side of 16th Avenue, and Arbutus Street. Looking west, across Arbutus at the slumbering front end loader on the, now leveled, former site of the Ridge Centre. It needs it's rest, there are still days of demolition debris to load and cart away. Click the image to enlarge it.
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For the first time in over 60 years the iconic "RIDGE" sign is nowhere to be seen![/caption]
Work appears to be well underway on gutting the various interiors of the Ridge Centre, the 1950s-era, block long, strip mall at 16th Avenue, and Arbutus Street, which is making way for a new Cressey condo development to be called Arbutus Ridge, as detailed in an earlier post. ►
The most visible sign the Centre is coming down is the one you can't see -- the big red "RIDGE" sign, which has sat atop the movie theatre for over 60 years, is gone. It will be restored, or recreated, to add a decorative "historical" detail to the new development. However, the bowling alley's equally iconic bowling pin is still there. Are there really no plans to save it?
The McDonalds restaurant on the North-West corner of 16th, and Arbutus has been stripped bare. The franchise owner, John Marsh, will have moved everything useful to his other McDonalds locations, numbering four or five. Every window shows a view of demolition in progress. That progress may be slow given the age of the building, and the possibility that it contains nasty old things like asbestos insulation.
On the Sunday afternoon I came by to see the "progress," the only activity at the Ridge Centre was in the restaurant on the South-West corner of 15th, and Arbutus. The owner of the Ridge Garden Restaurant, an anchor tenant in the Ridge Centre for 24 years, was there for the last time ever. He was a little emotional when I spoke to him, and, it seemed more than a little "unhappy" at the way things had turned out. He told me none of the residents in the area wanted this redevelopment -- not one. I asked him if he'd been been offered the option of coming back, when the new development was finished. He said flatly he was given no option. He told me McDonalds wouldn't be back either (a McDonalds manager at the Broadway and Granville location confirmed this).
The Ridge Garden's owner told me he was still three weeks away from opening his new location on 24th Avenue, and Macdonald Street -- a good location, I suggested, in the heart of Kitsilano, and not far at all for his regular clientele, this was certainly what he was hoping, he said. Click on the images to enlarge them.
For the first time in over 60 years the iconic "RIDGE" sign is nowhere to be seen![/caption]Work appears to be well underway on gutting the various interiors of the Ridge Centre, the 1950s-era, block long, strip mall at 16th Avenue, and Arbutus Street, which is making way for a new Cressey condo development to be called Arbutus Ridge, as detailed in an earlier post. ►
The most visible sign the Centre is coming down is the one you can't see -- the big red "RIDGE" sign, which has sat atop the movie theatre for over 60 years, is gone. It will be restored, or recreated, to add a decorative "historical" detail to the new development. However, the bowling alley's equally iconic bowling pin is still there. Are there really no plans to save it?
The McDonalds restaurant on the North-West corner of 16th, and Arbutus has been stripped bare. The franchise owner, John Marsh, will have moved everything useful to his other McDonalds locations, numbering four or five. Every window shows a view of demolition in progress. That progress may be slow given the age of the building, and the possibility that it contains nasty old things like asbestos insulation.
On the Sunday afternoon I came by to see the "progress," the only activity at the Ridge Centre was in the restaurant on the South-West corner of 15th, and Arbutus. The owner of the Ridge Garden Restaurant, an anchor tenant in the Ridge Centre for 24 years, was there for the last time ever. He was a little emotional when I spoke to him, and, it seemed more than a little "unhappy" at the way things had turned out. He told me none of the residents in the area wanted this redevelopment -- not one. I asked him if he'd been been offered the option of coming back, when the new development was finished. He said flatly he was given no option. He told me McDonalds wouldn't be back either (a McDonalds manager at the Broadway and Granville location confirmed this).
The Ridge Garden's owner told me he was still three weeks away from opening his new location on 24th Avenue, and Macdonald Street -- a good location, I suggested, in the heart of Kitsilano, and not far at all for his regular clientele, this was certainly what he was hoping, he said. Click on the images to enlarge them.
September 26 update: no more bowling pin! ►
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