Save The Pleasant Hill Century 5 Dome theatre from Demolition!

Early next year the Pleasant Hill Contra Costa
(Wards) Shopping Center is set to be demolished,
leaving a polished lot of free space- for commercial
interests. The shopping center is dead in itself, the
only activity it receives is from Bally's Gym and the
Cine Arts dome. Bally's, among the other stores-
including Friedman's and the Dollar Tree- will most
likely be relocated into the newer buildings. However,
the Dome structure will be lost forever.
It's spirit will be carried on in a newer Cine
Arts theatre- to be built states the proposed
remodeling plans. But the fact sill remains- the dome
structure is not in the new plans and it needs to be.
The Century 5 dome was built in 1966 as a
Cinerama movie theatre. The dome represents not only a
piece of film history, but it is also a timeless piece
of architectural history.
The Cinerama Dome theatre was vastly popular in
the late 60's, early 70's, but many have been
demolished due to film format changes.
The Domes Cinerama screen is indeed wider and
slightly shorter than your average screen nowadays,
but it does not overly distort the image of newer
films.
What better place to see artistic/ foreign movies
than in an artistic, historical movie theatre?
The dome doesn't have to remain a theatre either.
CinemaTreasures.org believes the dome could definitely
be built around and still preserved. And it could be!
It's well maintained, and with a few changes (newer
slides, larger restrooms, etc) it could shine to the
highest extent. The large (dome) theatre could easily
be converted to a student movie theatre, playhouse or
IMAX theatre- if it's changed from a Cine Arts
theatre. The smaller buildings in the theatre could
then be converted to smaller stores then built around
into the "fresher mega mall" type appeal Buskirk
Partners would like to achieve. (Or just demolished
since the actual dome is a fully independent
structure).
The possibilities for this independent Dome movie
theatre are endless.
Please sign this petition and perserve this
beautiful theatre before it's too late. Please
embrace art, film and history and keep the dome alive.
Thank You.