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Posted Mar 4, 2019, 3:19 AM
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Hamilton Historian
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Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Hamilton
Posts: 3,133
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Here's an image of the exterior - that link is a bit annoying in that it makes you pay to read it..
The exterior looks great though!
Here's a look at the exterior sign letters before they were put up:
as it was being put up:
bottom part lit while being put up:
I really wish they'd sodablast the stone at the top - the streaking kinda ruins the restoration somewhat.
And at night lit (better quality pic than the nighttime ones linked farther up)
and a tiny pic of the interior:
Since they ask you to pay to see the rest of the article, I'll just paste it in here:
“Congratulations! What time are you showing the free movie?” says one man as he
extends his hand to shake. Today, Some Like It Hot is on offer to those who
contributed to the fundraising campaign, along with a pre-movie open house.
Interior of the snack bar:
“It’s phenomenal,” another says as he goes in for a bear-hug.
One man bounds down the staircase and practically pins Mr. Crawford to the
concession stand, a contemporary take on Art Deco designed by Mr. Graham’s
partner, Gerald Stanley, who spent much of his career in the design and
construction arm of Cineplex-Odeon under Garth Drabinsky. “Congratulations!
Looking good! It’s really changed up there,” the man says, beaming.
“Oh, it was gutted, it had to be,” Mr. Crawford replies, “to get the number of
washrooms to code.”
An elegant, jewel-encrusted older woman concurs: “Beautiful washroom!” she
opines as she descends the stairs and locks eyes with the two men.
It’s not just the washrooms: Everything here is beautiful. The corrugated metal box
with its large, illuminated letter-board no longer smothers the façade; instead, the
hand-carved, Indiana limestone Comedy and Tragedy masks once again direct their
gaze onto King Street West, just as they did until the 1969 renovation sucked away
much of 1935. Below these is a more Deco-accurate, smaller marquee lovingly
constructed by Sunset Neon. And speaking of neon, the familiar (if a little kitschy)
WESTDALE letters in green neon have been repurposed inside as decoration over
the staircase.
The familiar WESTDALE letters in green neon have been
repurposed inside as decoration over the staircase.
Below Sunset’s streamlined signage, a riot of cream, orange, black and swirly olive-
alabaster Vitrolite (pigmented structural glass) has been removed, refurbished,
harvested from elsewhere and reinstalled in its original jazzy pattern. One piece,
formerly painted over, sports sandblasted pyramid-shapes. And would you look at
those front doors? Hand-crafted by Alan Stacey and his team at Heritage Mill in
nearby Dundas, Ont., they respect the original ziggurat pattern while eliminating
the complex sash pattern for a more pleasing, contemporary look.
Inside the lobby, original Deco frames for coming attractions posters have been
recreated by local firm Crescent Cabinet Co.
It’s hard to believe these myriad details were gleaned from a handful of period
photographs, all in black-and-white; in fact, the Vitrolite patterning was
determined from just one photograph that had to be lightened up in Photoshop.
In the main auditorium, Gerald Stanley says the new paint scheme comes partly
from scrape-tests, but mostly from educated guesses.
Even in the main auditorium, the new – and much more elegant – café-au-
lait/mint-green paint scheme comes partly from scrape-tests, but mostly from
educated guesses, says Gerald Stanley, who had access to a 60-page building
specification document from the Ontario Archives: “In spite it being called a
‘specification,’ there was nothing specific in it in terms of colour,” he quips. Pointing
to one of the decorative columns that frames the giant screen, he adds: “This gold
that you’re seeing here is a guess because one of the few archival photos we have,
the paint in that area looked metallic.”
The “jazz plaster” that covers most walls was a different story, however. While
much of the peaks-and-valleys, stucco-like finish was untouched, many areas had
been damaged by cover-ups or obliterated by water damage. Somehow, Schuit
Plastering & Stucco was able to recreate the finish so well, the eye is completely
fooled: “That’s original, this is not,” says Mr. Crawford, pointing to two identical
patches of wall. “They were really, really good, they really cared about this.”
It wasn’t just the plasterers: Every single worker who spent time on the Westdale
understood that they were preserving something bigger than the sum of its parts:
“The trades, they work every day on construction stuff, but they seemed to
embrace this as a special project,” Mr. Crawford confirms. “To have a building that
is designated inside and outside is not that common.”
Even 21st-century interventions done for convenience or fire
code have been done with grace and thoughtfulness to the overall impact on the
building’s character.
And then there were the donors: All 345 seats were “purchased” and name-
plaqued; the new accessible seating area was named; and the lobby, stage,
auditorium and even the popcorn machine were sponsored in exchange for
immortality on brass. Those who volunteered their skills or time in other ways
have been honoured via an illuminated sign.
Even 21st-century interventions done for convenience or fire code – a half-
wall separating auditorium from lobby has been removed and the only heritage
elements to remain upstairs are windows – have been done with grace and
thoughtfulness to the overall impact on the building’s character. Then again,
that’s not surprising, since movie houses are places that seem to belong to all
of us … magic places some folk will gladly stick their necks out to save.
But now, finishes Mr. Crawford, it’s our turn: “The truth is we need to keep
raising money; we paid for everything to open, but there’s a big chunk that
are loans.”
Last edited by Chronamut; Mar 4, 2019 at 5:41 AM.
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