News

Photographs Courtesy of Rich Schmitt Photography

Thank you to all of those who attended the 2025 Annual Meeting on May 8th, 2025. We hosted 75 attendees, including Conservancy members, volunteers, Santa Monica residents, and public officials – Senator Ben Allen and Councilmember Ellis Raskin.

The meeting began with our Board President, Mario Fonda-Bonardi, introducing organizational business: Board elections. In a unanimous vote, Laurel Schmidt was appointed to the 15th seat of our Conservancy Board. We are honored to have a Santa Monica resident who is incredibly active in our community join our leadership. Since moving to Santa Monica in 1990, Laurel has served as a teacher at Santa Monica Alternative School House, the principal of Franklin Elementary, and the director of Student Services for SMMUSD. Her commitment to our community extends to her service on the Landmarks Commission and Santa Monica Public Library Board. She previously served five years on the Conservancy Board during the renovations of our historic Shotgun House.

After Board elections, Board Member Morgan Sykes Jaybush and Executive Director Kaitlin Drisko, described our affinity groups and future programs including:

• Preservation Next: Our affinity group for emerging and mid-career preservationists is gearing up for the second event of the year, Discover DTLA Broadway: Two Cases on Adaptive Reuse, on May 28th.
• Fourth of July Parade: We’re coordinating with our community heritage partners to celebrate Santa Monica’s 150th anniversary.
• Preservation Awards (November): We’re planning a special event to honor the recent preservation projects and all those who advance​ heritage conservation in ​Santa Monica.
• Member Activities: To get more involved in events like the Annual Meeting, join the Events & Hospitality working committee. Email [email protected] for more information.

As a member-led organization, we must honor our volunteers. According to our Community Outreach Coordinator, Alissa Reid, we’ve recruited over 30 new volunteers, excited about heritage conservation.

At the Annual Meeting, we also took the opportunity to celebrate Santa Monica Mosaic co-producers Steve Loeper and Libby Motika with proclamations from the State of California Senate. Our March 16th Santa Monica Mosaic livestream event, The Way We Were: Shared Memories of a Village Lost, was recognized by Senator Ben Allen.

The Way We Were was a record-breaking program with over 400 registrants gathering to discuss the origins of the Palisades. We were honored to host four community leaders for this event: Randy Young, curator, Pacific Palisades Historical Society; Roberta Donohue, longtime Palisades advocate; Vanessa Pellegrini, founding family member of Vittorio Ristorante; and Bill Bruns, former editor of the Palisadian-Post.

“I was able to join [the March 16th] Mosaic program and just wanted to commend [the Santa Monica Conservancy and Pacific Palisades Historical Society] for putting together such an informative and moving tribute to your community. All of [the] presentations were excellent and beautifully captured the distinctive history and community spirit that has made the Palisades so unique.”

– Ken Bernstein, Manager of the Office of Historic Resources & Principal City Planner at Los Angeles City Planning

In our next Mosaic installment, A Cultural Landscape: The Treasured Trees of Pacific Palisades, we’ll discuss Pacific Palisades’ horticultural heritage. Save the date for July 27th, 5:00 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. More details to come!

Finally, the event closed out with a keynote speech from the president and CEO of L.A. Conservancy, Adrian Scott Fine. His talk was titled “Reframing Preservation to Meet the Moment”. Adrian brought up relevant themes to our mission at the Conservancy: sustainability, housing, cultural heritage, and climate change.

At the Annual Meeting, we celebrated a lot of wins! In the past year, we landmarked the Tucker House and Philomathean Hall. We’ve also shown our support for the rehabilitation of the Santa Monica Auditorium. However, we know our work isn’t done. We want to do our best to conserve Santa Monica’s local heritage, but also act as a resource for our legacy business owners and the coastal community.

That said, we’d like your input – submit feedback to this form.

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