Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Opening Address at Rudolf Steiner Centre Open House



Address given by Marjorie Thatcher at the Open House for the renovated Rudolf Steiner Centre in North Vancouver, on October 21, 2012:

On behalf of the anthroposophical community in Vancouver and the Board of the Rudolf Steiner Centre Association, I welcome you most warmly to this open house marking the completion of the subdivision and renovation of our strata.

The difficulty of finding tenants, the need for renovation, and the desire of our last tenants to purchase the space they were renting from us led to our decision to subdivide. Five years ago at a meeting of our association, when agreed to begin this process, someone said, "It will be a piece of cake and take only a few months." It proved to be quite a cake and gave us several bouts of indigestion during this five year process!

When we began, the strata council and management said it was not possible for us to divide a business strata. Yet with the help of a lawyer and a number of consultants, the subdivision and sale were completed in February 2011. Aspects of the strata complex challenged us, and we are grateful to our former tenants who worked with us to meet these obstacles and shared equally in the costs incurred.

We could now proceed with renovating the Centre itself. Many in our community were involved moving out the contents of the Centre, then moving them back in. On behalf of the Board, we thank them. An special thank you goes to Bert Chase, who served as architect, artist, and project manager. He steered us through the whole of this process and you can now see the result of his work.

We  are fortunate to own a centre in Canada devoted to the work of anthroposophy. It is with gratitude that we acknowledge Steven and Helga Roboz, along with others who in 1969 founded the first Centre on West 4th Avenue in Vancouver. We are  building on their legacy. In the late 1980's the Centre moved to a house on Keith Road in North Vancouver. Then, due to zoning restrictions on that site, we moved to this location in the Delbrook Plaza. Rhoda Meier and Mary Speck worked to make that move possible. We thank them for finding and first creating this space that has served us for many years.

May this renovated and beautiful space, with its large library and kitchen make possible new opportunities for anthroposophical activity. We trust that everyone will contribute to support it.

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