Group Fears For Integrity Of Admiral Theater -- Interior Murals May Be At Risk

A group formed to save the Admiral Twin Theatre in West Seattle was elated when the city Landmarks Preservation Board voted unanimously last year to designate the building for historic preservation.

The Save the Admiral Theater Task Force, formed by the Southwest Seattle Historical Society, had gathered more than 4,000 signatures on petitions in behalf of its cause. It had sold 1,400 ``Save the Admiral Theater'' buttons.

Success seemed assured.

Now the joy of victory could be turning into the pain of defeat.

The Admiral will remain standing, but its owner, Cineplex Odeon, is negotiating with the landmarks board to make changes in the building the task force says would destroy its integrity.

Built in the heyday of neighborhood theaters in 1942, the Admiral resembles a ship and has two large murals with nautical themes on its east and west interior walls. The building occupies a prominent place on California Avenue Southwest, in the heart of West Seattle's Admiral District.

Cineplex Odeon closed the theater in January 1989 and has at least two potential buyers for the property. It is proposing to install doors and windows along much of the front of the building, which would open it up for retail or office uses but destroy the east mural. In addition, there is no guarantee that a buyer would leave the west mural uncovered.

These possibilities worry Clay Eals, president of the historical society, which worked hard to achieve the historical designation and still hopes the Admiral has not shown its last movie and that it will reopen sometime.

``What does the designation mean when the final verdict means that you compromise the integrity of the building? There are a myriad of other ways that Cineplex Odeon could make the building marketable or attractive to a buyer,'' Eals said.

``It's a wonderful building, with some interesting and evocative features. At least the building has been saved and we're having a say in what controls will be placed on it,'' said Deb Barker, a member of the task force.

The controversy sheds light on what actually can happen after a Seattle building is to be preserved for its historic, cultural or architectural significance. Three steps are followed by the 11-member landmarks board:

First, a building is nominated as a landmark by the board, then designated, and then a ``controls and incentives agreement'' is worked out between the building's owner and the board, enabling changes to be made to the building so it can be put to other uses.

The Admiral, which was the last surviving movie house in West Seattle, is at this crucial last step.

``Some people see the city's landmarks process as creating museums out of buildings, or preserving a kind of artifact, when it's really a mixture of that and some recycling,'' said Howard Stambor, Cineplex Odeon's lawyer in the Admiral case. He noted that the landmarks board preserves structures, not uses.

Stambor doubts whether the Admiral will ever be a movie house again, and said the most likely use of the building is for other commercial purposes. He wants to see it come alive again with activity.

``We want to see people walking and shopping on California Avenue there. Our goal is to have maximum flexibility for a future owner while still preserving many features of the building,'' he said.

Cineplex Odeon bought the theater in December 1986, but lost money each succeeding year because of a lack of patrons, Stambor said. Some West Seattle residents contend that was because poor movies were shown, but he said film distributors exert a lot of control over where films are shown and the better ones go to more popular theaters.

Stambor said Toronto-based Cineplex Odeon, owners of many theaters in the U.S. and Canada, finds itself in a surprising situation in the Admiral case.

``We are the only theater chain in this country, that I know of, that preserves and restores old movie houses,'' he said. ``We are preservationists. We love movies and we love the grand old tradition of movies.''

The landmarks board is scheduled to consider an agreement for the theater property May 2.