NEWPORT BEACH : Shopping Center Project Artfully Done

When the Vons Pavilions supermarket, anchor store of Newport Beach’s Via Lido Plaza, reopens today after a five-month renovation, the store will be the centerpiece of a rejuvenated shopping center and also one of a kind in the 325-unit Vons chain.

Shopping center owner Fritz Duda, who is also a Vons Co. board member, persuaded the supermarket chain to forgo Pavilions’ standard color scheme. Instead, the company commissioned Newport Beach artist Ellen Gladis to paint murals depicting the city’s history and landmarks.

The scenes of sailboat regattas, lifeguards, sea lions lounging on a buoy and dorymen towing a boat onshore were also a departure from Gladis’ style, the artist said.

“I tend to lean toward artistic, aesthetic pictures” like solitary beach and sunset scenes, she said. “They steered me more toward community action.”

Eight in a series of 6-by-15-foot murals line the store’s interior walls. Four more will be hung as Gladis completes them through the end of the year. The market will sell 20-by-34-inch lithographs of the murals.

The store was built in the 1940s and opened as Richard’s Market. It became a Market Basket store in the early 1970s and a Hughes market in 1976. Vons leased the site in 1988 and opened a Pavilions Place, one of the company’s upscale markets.

The shopping center, on the city’s Balboa peninsula, was due for a make-over, said Shannon Green, a Duda spokeswoman. “The idea was to counteract what is viewed as a decline in the peninsula environment.”

Brick walkways with entry arches have been added between buildings, which include a Bank of America branch, the Edwards Lido Cinema, offices, restaurants and shops. Via Lido Drugs, closed for several months, has also been renovated, Green said.

Duda and Vons officials are considering whether to gate the parking lot, offer valet parking or post guards to make sure only shoppers park in the center. Proximity to the beach, City Hall and the Lido Marina shopping center makes competition for parking intense.

“Plans change from day to day,” Green said. “We’ll work with the public and Vons. We want it to be as customer-friendly as we can possibly make it.”