South Bay transformations

"Nothing is permanent but change," said the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, sounding like he would have felt right at home on the South Bay landscape.

Another philosopher named Joni Mitchell once sang, "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot." That's certainly happened in the South Bay, too, though maybe not as often as one would think.

Arguments can be made over whether transformations over the years have always have been for the better.

The Point Vicente Interpetive Center, above, the whale-watching site in Rancho Palos Verdes, would seem to beat the heck out of the former firing range/Nike missile site that once stood there, at least in terms of aesthetics.

Theme park buffs might bemoan the loss of Marineland, shown above in 1981, but developers have crafted a sumptuous luxury hotel and resort, Terranea, shown below, on the same coastal land where trained whale shows once delighted onlookers.

The part of the giant Unocal oil tank farm south of Lomita Boulevard on Crenshaw Boulevard was sold to developers in 1989. It became the heavily used Torrance Crossroads shopping center.

Above, the mostly vacant lot, part of Unocal's tank farm, that the company sold to developers. Below, the Torrance Crossroads shopping center that took its place.

The distinctive Parasol restaurant on Pacific Coast Highway in Torrance (interior shown, below left) is now a less-distinctive Walgreen's pharmacy, while the old-school favorite Del Conte's Restaurant (below, right) became Pacific Porsche, a gleaming auto dealership.