Albany, CA Safeway

[justin karimzad]

Safeway has (proposed) to demolish and rebuild its 20,000 square foot store at 1500 Solano ave in Albany, a classic and intact mid-1960's marina store. Truthfully, this is one of the best marina Safeway's I've been to; it has one of the loftiest ceilings I've seen in a '60s Safeway, and has a plethora of glass rounding out the arch. (The old gold-colored address letters and the rock walls on the sides are a nice touch too). The redevelopment plan would essentially urbanize the store, by doubling the store's size, including condos above, a two-level parking garage below, and bringing the front of the store to the sidewalk. Luckily, virtually all of the neighbors are in objection to this proposal. At least one is disappointed that Safeway has not updated this store, but feels that Safeway should upgrade the existing store, instead of going through all this.

[TheStranger]

Does anyone have any photos of this store? If not, I might have to hit this up come Thanksgiving or Christmas break...

Here's the article on the planned high-density rebuild, from November 2005:

http://www.berkeleydaily.org/article.cf ... ryID=22756

And an overhead shot:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q ... =1&iwloc=A

A bit OT: There are several other marinas, particularly in the East Bay, I've been thinking about hitting up due to their lack of (recent) photo coverage so far...in particular, the Kragen marina in Richmond, the marina-and-box pair in Rheem Valley (Moraga), and Orinda, the latter two which have photos on Charles Hathaway's site...

Here's a couple of pictures on Flickr of the Orinda store, which has unusual 1970s brown Safeway lettering and a 1970s shingle front...
http://flickr.com/photos/kewlio/183427658/
http://flickr.com/photos/ebird/13608592/

Compare to the photo at Hathaway's collection:
http://home.comcast.net/~evchathaway/ws ... 48119.html

And a Google overhead which shows the store might be false-fronted with the 1970s additions:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q ... =1&iwloc=A

[justin karimzad]

The orinda store was expanded and remodeled in 1982, during which time a suspended ceiling was added that hid the Marina ceiling. I think this store opened around 1960. Other noteworthy east bay marinas are;

-1444 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley (opened 1965, featuring basement parking and elevator)
-6310 College Ave, Oakland (opened 1964), this is the first photo in the "locations from the 1960s as they appear now" Safeway section of this
site
-1421 Tara Hills Dr, Pinole: the facade may have been remodeled at some point, since this store doesn't have the marina front, but a satellite view shows that it has a Marina roof (I've never been here, so I don't know if it still has a Marina ceiling inside)
-6688 Alhambra Ave, Martinez: this one also probably had a facade change, but you can still see the original rock-textured concrete walls in the rear of the store

...And a gable;
-4100 Redwood Rd, Oakland (opened between May 1963-May 1964; you've probably seen it on Charles Hathaway's website)
-there's another former gable on Claremont Ave. down the street just southwest of the College Ave. Marina. Something occupies it, although the lot is fenced off.
-there's a former 1957 Safeway (now possibly a car dealership) with a sideways gable, exactly like the 1150 Ocean Ave. store in the "locations from the 1960s as they appear now" section, at Telegraph and 40th ave. in Oakland. However, this is really hidden, since part of the parking lot has been built on, and this one too is fenced off, so it's really hard to get a good look at the store.
-As offtopic as this is, I thought I'd throw in the Mi Pueblo Foods market at 235 E. Julian St. in San Jose, that's also the 1957 sideways gable. I was told this closed as a Safeway about 1986.

[TheStranger]

The orinda store was expanded and remodeled in 1982, during which time a suspended ceiling was added that hid the Marina ceiling. I think this store opened around 1960. Other noteworthy east bay marinas are;

-1444 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley (opened 1965, featuring basement parking and elevator)

I've passed by this store before but it's been at least four or five years and I have no recollection of it, though strangely enough I do remember passing right by the former Safeway on Oregon Ave., the Berkeley Bowl occupying that marina site.

Come to think of it, of Berkeley's three marinas, two are still operating as Safeway, which is not a bad batting percentage at all (66%, just like SF, where 4 of 6 are still Safeways). I think that Winnipeg (as an individual community) might have a better percentage of still-running marinas though.

-6310 College Ave, Oakland (opened 1964), this is the first photo in the "locations from the 1960s as they appear now" Safeway section of this site

Is there a more recent photo of that store? The shots on this site, if I'm not mistaken, are eight years old or so.

...And a gable;
-4100 Redwood Rd, Oakland (opened between May 1963-May 1964; you've probably seen it on Charles Hathaway's website)

Looking at it on Googlemaps, I think that got false-fronted...but I'm not sure. Hopefully that old Circle S sign is still there...

-there's another former gable on Claremont Ave. down the street just southwest of the College Ave. Marina. Something occupies it, although the lot is fenced off.

I could googlemap that if there was a cross street to go by...

-there's a former 1957 Safeway (now possibly a car dealership) with a sideways gable, exactly like the 1150 Ocean Ave. store in the "locations from the 1960s as they appear now" section, at Telegraph and 40th ave. in Oakland. However, this is really hidden, since part of the parking lot has been built on, and this one too is fenced off, so it's really hard to get a good look at the store.

Googlemaps:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q ... =1&iwloc=A

-As offtopic as this is, I thought I'd throw in the Mi Pueblo Foods market at 235 E. Julian St. in San Jose, that's also the 1957 sideways gable.

Live Local:
http://local.live.com/?v=2&sp=Point.q6q ... d%20States___

That one Safeway currently operating in a mall in Maui seems to be part of the "sideways gable" prototype as well.

[justin karimzad]

Sorry I don't know the crosstreet of the 1961 Claremont Ave. gable. Yes the Redwood Rd. Safeway was falsefronted, but it does indeed have that circle S on the right side of the store still. Speaking of circle S, the Orinda Safeway seems to have been one of the very last Safeways to incorporate the circle S, even when they redid the front in 1982. It's no longer there, though. Oddly, in an article about the grand re-opening of this store, they used the square S logo with letters beside for a heading, while the photo below it had the circle S! This article can be found in the Orinda Historical Society in the Orinda library. Unfortunately, I don't have a scanner, so I can't scan the copy I made.

[romleys]

I hate to even think how this store will look after the remodel that is currently taking place. The shake roof has been stripped off the facade of the store. The marina might be exposed within a few days or weeks depending on the time it takes to remodel the store. I am planning to visit this store in the coming days to get photographs while I still can. If there are any other photo requests for the Lafayette, Moraga, Orinda, or Rheem areas I can get them either before or after my school day happens in Rheem. In addition the former Petrini's in Rheem is opening as a store called Home Goods on October 22, 2006. Did I mention that Home Goods is a sister company of TJ Maxx which has a store in that same shopping center.

[TheStranger]

I hate to even think how this store will look after the remodel that is currently taking place. The shake roof has been stripped off the facade of the store. The marina might be exposed within a few days or weeks depending on the time it takes to remodel the store. I am planning to visit this store in the coming days to get photographs while I still can. If there are any other photo requests for the Lafayette, Moraga, Orinda, or Rheem areas I can get them either before or after my school day happens in Rheem. In addition the former Petrini's in Rheem is opening as a store called Home Goods on October 22, 2006. Did I mention that Home Goods is a sister company of TJ Maxx which has a store in that same shopping center.

Hmm...

In a few minutes I'll work on getting the Bay Area locations from the 1976 Safeway California map listed in that specific thread, which will be pretty helpful for this little quest :)

I'd definitely like to see all of those Safeway locations (duh) and that Petrini's, essentially any that have not had photo coverage (recently at the very least). Rheem Valley's marina-and-box happens to be the most notable location on mind right now...

Isn't TJ Maxx operating in the marina now in Rheem Valley?

I did a googlemaps on the San Ramon store on your site and I think it may have been obliterated by I-680 construction and replaced nearby, on the west side of old Route 21 (the postcard has the Safeway and shopping center on the east side of old Route 21).

That other Berkeley marina (Shattuck Place) seems to have never been covered at all, unlike Berkeley Bowl or the College Avenue store which I've seen numerous times.

[romleys]

I will be happy to take those photos for you:) Oh, by the way the postcard showing SAN RAMON VILLAGE shows a Safeway that is currently a Big Lots. Over the past six months the shopping center went under a major renovation. All of the store facades except the former Safeway were stuccoed over and modernized. The marina safeway will not be remodeled in anyway leaving it's exterior largely intact. If you look on the stone walls at the store you can see the four pegs that held up the Circle S symbol. I do know a very strange story about that Safeway but that is a seperate topic I will bring up in the future.

[TheStranger]

I will be happy to take those photos for you:) Oh, by the way the postcard showing SAN RAMON VILLAGE shows a Safeway that is currently a Big Lots. Over the past six months the shopping center went under a major renovation. All of the store facades except the former Safeway were stuccoed over and modernized. The marina safeway will not be remodeled in anyway leaving it's exterior largely intact. If you look on the stone walls at the store you can see the four pegs that held up the Circle S symbol. I do know a very strange story about that Safeway but that is a seperate topic I will bring up in the future.

Ah, I know why I got so thrown off on the address: a search for "San Ramon Village" shopping center, in San Ramon, isn't where this Big Lots is located...it's in Dublin, well west of I-680 (but still right on old Route 21).

Glad to see a remodel that doesn't involve ruining a marina facade...here's a googlemaps overhead:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q ... 2&t=h&om=1

It'd be interesting to find out which existing Safeway marinas and gables at this moment are getting remodels, to see if my theory that general facade preservation is now company policy: Market Street in SF, Eastgate and 150th in Bellevue, WA, and the Lake Oswego, OR stores come to mind first, but others include...

the Mission/30th store in SF (currently being renovated)

San Rafael - http://www.midstateconstruction.com/pic ... rafael.jpg

and the Redwood City gable at http://www.acg1.com/Safeway747/index.html that received a facelift.

[justin karimzad]

...and the 2100 Ralston Ave. Belmont 1964 gable Safeway that got a remodel in 2003 that preserved the gable and the outside, and another mid-'60s gable at 2800 Ygnacio Valley Rd in Walnut Creek, and the 2811 Middlefield Rd. Palo Alto gable Safeway.

Palo Alto Safeway;
http://californiabits.com/hello/481908/ ... .11.45.jpg
http://www.newsvine.com/_vine/images/ap ... 7fa37b.jpg
http://julianalee.com/homes/2002/loma_v ... 7_shop.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/5/6005316_becf13469e_m.jpg

[TheStranger]

Hey Justin, you mentioned the Shattuck Avenue Safeway...I think I have finally found a photo of it, in this Berkeley Daily Planet article:

http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/arti ... ryID=20148

Not a good shot (very pixellated) but I have seen the North Berkeley Safeway and the current Berkeley Bowl marinas much more often on the web than this one.

Oh yeah, the Claremont Avenue gable? I finally found it, it's at Claremont and Clifton south of Route 24:
http://local.live.com/?v=2&sp=Point.q96 ... d%20States___

That site's current status:
http://www.rockridge.org/news/RN04.02.pdf

Hospital Plans Expansion
Children’s Hospital Oakland has expansion
plans for their acute care facility at 51st
/Martin Luther King Way and the old
Safeway site at Claremont and Clifton, which
they currently lease.

5345 Claremont Ave. (Former
Safeway) Vacant (Proposed
Warehouse)

[justin karimzad]

Thank you for the photo. You're right, that is the Shattuck Ave. Safeway; one feature that distinguishes is from the typical Marina Safeway is the large, flat overhang and entry foyer that it has, and appears to have always had, on the front. This Safeway has a plaque near the left entrance with its innoguration date of 1965, stating that this is the site of the first water well in Berkeley. At least as late as 1965, the well site still had water flowing underground. In the Safeway newspaper clipping file of the Oakland library, there's a small article about this with a picture of a Safeway official splashing water from the well on one wall of the store to commemorate the event. I think the well is still in the same spot, but it's not currently functioning.

[TheStranger]

As for the Claremont Avenue gable Safeway, Charles Hathaway has kindly sent me this photo of the building from a week or two ago:

[TheStranger]

1421 Tara Hills Dr, Pinole: the facade may have been remodeled at some point, since this store doesn't have the marina front, but a satellite view shows that it has a Marina roof (I've never been here, so I don't know if it still has a Marina ceiling inside)

Just went to the store today on the way back from the SF area, and I took some photos.

http://dtcwrt.earlracing.com/stores/other.htm

The interior decor is 1990s-era, and has a drop-ceiling - very similar to the flagship Market Street store in SF which received its big remodel in 1998. The Marina roofline can be seen from the ramp from eastbound I-80 to Appian Way, and possibly driving westbound on Appian headed towards 80, but it cannot be seen at all anywhere in the store parking lot.