Landmark’s Future Cloudy

Pasadena Councilman Victor Gordo compares Old Pasadena’s historic Raymond Theatre to a family pet that has suffered the ravages of age, but that no one is willing to put out of its misery.

Now the City Council appears poised to approve a plan that would end the 80-year-old landmark’s life as a theater. Instead, it would be gutted to make way for apartments, shops and offices.

With two of its eight members absent, however, the council could not muster the five votes needed Monday night to seal the Georgian-revival theater’s fate and end a 15-year debate over its future.

However, with four council members indicating their willingness to green-light the project and at least one supporter expected from those absent, it was the strongest indication yet that the conversion of the Raymond will be approved at a Jan. 7 meeting.

“We’re potentially vulnerable on property rights if we continue to hold this property hostage,” said Councilman Steve Madison, a conversion supporter.

But Madison’s efforts to get five votes fell short when Councilman Sidney Tyler Jr. was joined by Councilman Paul Little in opposing the theater’s conversion.

To cheers from scores of theater boosters packing the council chamber during a three-hour public hearing, Little said he was not willing to decide the theater’s fate without council members Chris Holden and Joyce Streator present, both of whom were ill.

“I expect Chris will decide to support the project, but I think he should be here for the vote,” Little said after the meeting.

The theater’s owners, Gene and Marilyn Buchanan, want council approval to build 62 apartments in the parking lot and in the 90-foot-high stage house. They would put offices in the balcony area and create retail stores in the main space, while restoring the Beaux Arts facade of the 1,800-seat theater.

Gene Buchanan told the council that there was no economically viable alternative to his project.

To prove his point, he cited the failed effort of attorney Pierce O’Donnell and entrepreneur Harvey Knell to acquire the theater this summer.

The pair could not secure financing or a developer for an adjacent apartment structure that they hoped would help fund the $3.5-million purchase of the theater as a performing arts center.

They lost more than $200,000 that they paid the Buchanans.

“This reinforces our feeling that it is impossible for someone to run this theater [without public help],” Buchanan said.

Several supporters of the Buchanans told the council that the couple were the masterminds of the revival of Old Pasadena from a skid row to a thriving shopping district through their innovative reuse of historic structures.

But preservationists said the project effectively “demolishes” the theater that has showcased vaudeville, pornography flicks and rock ‘n’ roll before sitting empty much of the last decade.

“The proposed project will result in a ‘facade-omy’--a term akin to lobotomy--where the insides will be removed and only the shell will remain,” said Trudi Sandmeier, of the Los Angeles Conservancy.

The conservancy was joined by Pasadena Heritage and the National Trust for Historic Preservation in opposing the project.

Sue Mossman, executive director of Pasadena Heritage, said preservationists may sue the city if the council approves the project.