The Raymond's latest journey
Former Raymond Theatre debuts as Raymond Renaissance live-work condos
12/17/2009
Aguy sets sail in a wooden ship with plenty of supplies for a long journey, including a ton of wood for the inevitable repairs he’ll have to make to the ship. Over time, as anticipated, bits and pieces of the boat break apart and the man restores the ship, always keeping the original pieces of wood in the hull of the boat. Eventually, every inch of his ship has been replaced with new supplies and all the old stuff has been stacked below.
And voila! (The sailor is French in my version of the story.) He comes across a man lost at sea, clinging to a life raft. The sailor offers to bring the loner aboard, but they’re heading in opposite directions, so instead of traveling together, they manage to build another boat out of the remains of the sailor’s original ship.
The question is: who’s in the real boat? The sailor who replaced all the broken parts, or the shipwrecked vagabond traveling aboard the reconstructed ship?
I’m reminded of that old parable as residents begin to move into their long-awaited work-live condos at the historic Raymond Renaissance in downtown Pasadena this week. The Raymond Renaissance began life as the Jensen-Raymond Theatre, designed by architect Cyril Bennett and operated by immigrants Henry C. Jensen & Sons in 1921.
The movie and live-act venue was sold in 1948 and became the Crown Theatre movie palace, according to a story written a little more than a year ago by Pasadena Weekly’s Joe Piasecki. It was sold again in the 1960s, and this time featured live performances. By 1979, the building had become the popular rock venue Perkins Palace.
When Perkins Palace closed in the late 1980s, the property was bought by Gene and Marilyn Buchanan. The Buchanans, who have developed and renovated historical projects for decades, primarily in the Pasadena area, initially leased the Raymond to an entrepreneur who hoped to maintain the facility as a performing arts venue. However, funding problems barred the needed upgrades to meet building and safety codes, so the Buchanans decided to redevelop the property through their company, AJB Enterprises, Inc.
By this time, the building itself was in pretty poor shape. Windows, brickwork, decorations, Italian marble panels and other aspects of the property had been smashed, defaced or otherwise mauled. Descriptions of how the place looked 20 years ago sound more like Pompeii than Pasadena. But, anyway, here’s where the controversy over the beautiful old building was born.
A lot of people didn’t want the Raymond transformed into something other than a theater — somewhat like I wouldn’t want my mother turned into a mannequin.
“Enterprising Perkins Palace events manager Gina Zamparelli and her preservation group, Friends of the Raymond Theatre, launched a massive public and courtroom campaign opposing the conversion — a battle which raged until the Buchanans cleared all legal hurdles in 2005 and received building permits from the city in 2006,” Piasecki wrote in his September 2008 article, “Reconstructing History.”
To their credit, the Buchanans zealously pursued a plan for reuse that would not only reflect the glory of the old theater, but would also rehabilitate much of the building’s original structure and decor. The present facility includes a painstaking restoration of the 1920s Jensen Raymond Theatre, as well as 47 residential and live/work condominiums, and three ground-floor retail spaces. Some Pasadenans think it’s a triumph, others consider it a travesty.
I don’t know. The mother-into-mannequin simile seems fairly apt to me, though. My mother was once a brilliant and beautiful woman, but for years she has existed in a nursing home without recognizing anyone, without speaking, unable to eat or dress, or even walk independently. I wouldn’t want her to be turned into a mannequin. But I have to say that when I look at her, I can hardly recognize her as “my mother.” She’s something very different from that person. Questions of identity and authenticity are always so tricky.
That said, I hope all the residents and businesses that populate the Raymond Renaissance will thrive and be happy in their new homes. And maybe we could do a really great job of maintaining this particular structure in its new life as a mixed-use facility that might benefit the community for years to come.
Contact Joanna Dehn Beresford at truewrite@yahoo.com.
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