(Kron) – Despite the final attempt by the neighbors, a historical theater in the center of Berkeley will descend.
Berkeley City Council members voted on Tuesday night to support their approval of the project to demolish the United Artists Theater and turn it into housing.
People were packed at a special meeting of the city council in a recent effort to save the theater, which dates back to a century.
“This place can never be repeated again,” said Rose Elis, the founder of Save the Ua Theatre. “So I told myself about 15 years ago after seeing a movie that I have never left someone hurting this theater.”
Rose Elis maintained this promise. For two years, she was fighting to stop the demolition of the United Artists Theater in the center of Berkeley. The theater, which opened in 1932, was closed with movie stars such as Charlie Chaplin in the attendance, in 2023.
Elis said: “It is really important for a theater to be opened and we want to memorize it.”
The developer Patrick Kennedy, with panoramic interests, bought the property and obtained approval to build a 17 -storey residential building. But the “Save Ua Theatre Berkeleg” collection made an appeal, on the pretext that the theater is still in the historic record of the state. It is also the last permanent theater in the city center.
“It can remain a movie theater,” said Laura Linden, the institution participating in the Save the UA Theater. “I have worked as a multiplicity of transmission for many years.
People lined up for the project and against them to speak on Tuesday night.
One of the residents said: “This development is in line with the city’s commitment to build more housing in the city center near public transport and jobs.” “It is much important to keep theaters like UA to contact our past, but it also helps in redirect future generations,” she expressed another resident.
Kennedy says that while they are planning to demolish the theater, they are also planning to keep the front end and restore it.
“We would like to preserve it and provide a unique experience for the residents of our building,” Kennedy said. “The interior has 25 feet. It contains colored glass, chandeliers and ART DECO details that we want to merge into the hallway.”
The developer says with a customs tariff that makes building materials more expensive and more difficult to find them, he could not say when they will separate from the ground. But as soon as they do so, it will take to complete 24 months.
The stage of preserving the theater says they will continue their battle.