Conservancy News

The Conservancy has been working since May to protect the essential functions of our Landmarks Commission in the face of severe budget cuts and staff reductions. At the same time, we have been giving a lot of thought to how historic preservation can be part of our much-needed focus on equity and justice.

The Landmarks Commission met on July 29 for the first time since March and did not have demolition permits on their agenda.  Despite all our efforts, this review, one of the Commission’s core functions, has been removed from their purview and shifted to “the community.” By definition, these are the properties most at risk! While it is reasonably straightforward to identify buildings with architectural significance, those with cultural or historical value are usually identified in the public forum of a Landmarks Commission hearing. Instead of allowing the Commission to pursue an investigation of a potential landmark, protecting a threatened historic or cultural resource now requires the community’s intervention to file a landmark application and paying the filing fee, currently over $800. And access to the information necessary to research potential candidates for designation will be much more limited than in the past.

As part of the budget cuts, the city has also instituted a cost recovery model for the fees associated with applications for designation, eliminating fee waivers for non-profits, requiring payment for most consultant reports, ignoring the very real public benefit of maintaining our heritage and making historic preservation unaffordable for many.

We understand historic preservation as one the ways we can create and promote equity and justice. Protecting historic places representing our communities of color enables us to tell the full story. It also means that we can prevent this history from being erased.

Because of these unfortunate changes to the preservation program, the Santa Monica Conservancy must put new emphasis on the review of demolition permits and filing landmark applications when warranted. But we cannot do it without you!  Much of the information about our cultural heritage resides in community memories, especially those of our underrepresented populations.

We will notify you of the monthly demolition list in our newly created Advocacy News email. We will also collaborate with neighborhood organizations and community groups to publicize the lists and encourage their members to help provide information about threatened sites.

What can you do?

• Sign up for our monthly Advocacy News and share it with your friends and neighbors.
• Notify us at advocacy@smconservancy.org if you see a demolition sign in your neighborhood and include any information you might have about the property’s significance, history and culture.
• Donate to our Preservation Advocacy Fund to strengthen our voice for preservation in Santa Monica.

Let’s work together and ensure that our historic preservation program remains strong, and that we protect the places that represent the history and culture of all our communities.

The Santa Monica Conservancy recognized eight exemplary contributors to the preservation of Santa Monica’s architectural and cultural heritage. The Awards Committee congratulates the families, businesses and individuals for their preservation, stewardship, advocacy and volunteer work in our city.

Take a visual tour and learn about the work behind the scenes. Preservation Awards Part 1 features the Santa Monica Professional Building, Tartine Bakery, Villa Vicente and the Bay Street Beach Historic District. Preservation Awards Part 2 features the E.J. Carrillo Residence, 518 Adelaide Drive, 143 Wadsworth Avenue and Kay Pattison will be available next week.

President’s Award: Santa Monica Professional Building
as part of the Proper Hotel at 700 Wilshire Boulevard

Photo: Tim Street Porter

This 1928 landmark building has been rehabilitated and adaptively reused as 55 rooms with ground floor commercial space as part of the new Proper Hotel. The five-story building was refurbished, including rehabilitated steel windows and storefronts, restored interior circulation spaces and significant seismic improvements. The historic building is linked to a much larger development on the remainder of the block. In a unique process with extensive public process and design review, the project team developed a compatible new structure with a compelling modern expression in harmony with the historic building.

Rehabilitation Award: Villa Vicente
234 Vicente Boulevard

Photo: Chattel, Inc.

Villa Vicente, a two-story, 20-unit apartment building built in 1953 is a contributor to the San Vicente Courtyard Apartments Historic District and a striking example of simple modernism that remains remarkably intact. Original aluminum windows have been refurbished and inappropriate changes such as sliding windows have been replaced with aluminum sash to match. Stairs and railings that surround and enliven the courtyard were all repaired and refurbished. The project has added long-term life to this historic property and represents the successful use of the Mills Act program in preserving and enhancing the historic resources of Santa Monica.

Rehabilitation & Adaptive Reuse Award: Tartine Bakery, CIM Group
1925 Arizona Avenue

Photo: Lina Lee

Built in 1933, the former Gates, Kingsley & Gates Moeller Murphy Funeral Directors chapel was converted into a bakery and full-service restaurant for Tartine, which opened in March 2020. The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards guided the sensitive rehabilitation of the Tudor Revival style building throughout the project. The chapel’s cruciform plan was the basis for the restaurant’s interior layout, and materials, colors, fenestration shapes and stucco finish details on the exterior were unchanged. The extensive scope of work included structural repairs and upgrade of electrical, plumbing and mechanical systems, as well as the addition of fire sprinkler and fire alarm systems, restroom facilities and interior and exterior accessibility upgrades to meet the requirements of the new use.

Cultural Landscape Award: Bay Street Beach National Register Nomination and Listing
Alison Rose Jefferson, Ph.D., and Michael Blum

Verna and Sidney at Santa Monica’s Bay Street Beach, 1931. Photo: Los Angeles Public Library.

The Bay Street Beach Historic District became Santa Monica’s first district in the National Register of Historic Places in 2019. The 53-acre district recognizes and celebrates an intact African American seaside cultural landscape. During the Jim Crow era, the beach was self-selected by African Americans as a place of recreation and leisure where its visitors felt relatively safe from racist harassment. At this time, fewer than five percent of the listings in the National Register are associated with communities of color. The successful nomination required extensive documentation and advocacy by author and historian Alison Rose Jefferson, Ph.D., and Michael Blum, Executive Director of Sea of Clouds, a nonprofit focusing on coastal heritage conservation/historic preservation and environmental conservation.

Rehabilitation Award: E.J. Carrillo Residence
1602 Georgina Avenue

Photo: Amy Bartlam

This distinctive 1924 adobe home designed by famed local architect John Byers was extensively rehabilitated, preserving its exterior character and integrity. Major architectural features were restored or replaced in-kind. All the exterior plaster stucco was retained and preserved, as well as the distinctive roof tile and roofing system. The brick patio area was lovingly restored – the bricks had all been pulled up and stockpiled in the yard. The front porch was restored and porch pavers repaired. Original windows were preserved while non-operable shutters on the façade which did not appear to be original were removed, bringing back the simple Mexican vernacular of the Byers design. Owners John and Ali De Neufville and architect Paul Williger are proud and dedicated stewards of this important historic home.

Stewardship Award: 518 Adelaide Drive, Barry & Sharla Boehm

This unusual example of French Norman Revival architecture has been the home of the Boehm family since 1968. With very few changes made over the years, the distinctive charm of this historic 1925 home has been carefully tended. In 2019, Barry Boehm decided to preserve his house in perpetuity by nominating it for Santa Monica landmark designation. This particular style, inspired by French provincial architecture going back to the middle ages, is an unusual variant of the Period Revival styles that were prevalent in Santa Monica during the 1920s. With steeply angled rooflines, asymmetrical and irregular massing, and the rounded tower entryway, it is unique. The house now affirms its historic significance as an anchor amidst a rapidly changing streetscape on Adelaide Drive.

Rehabilitation Award: 143 Wadsworth Avenue

Turning a dilapidated 1905 rooming house into a beautifully restored and renovated family home took courage, dedication and attention to historic preservation principles. When the home was purchased by its current owners, it was in dire condition from neglect and jerry-built alterations, with sagging ceilings and exposed electrical wires. Historic preservation architect Winston Chappell guided the project to a successful conclusion. Wood floors, wainscoting, windows, doors and built-ins have been restored, and renovated spaces include antique décor selected by the owner. Spacious sleeping porches in the front and back were restored as sunrooms, and downstairs living areas were opened up to create a bright and welcoming Great Room, accomplished by relocating a ceiling support beam. This shingled American Foursquare house with a generous open porch is now a strong presence in the historic South Beach neighborhood.

Outstanding Volunteer Award: Kay Pattison

Photo: Annenberg Community Beach House

For more than a decade, Kay has been one of the most dedicated, talented and creative volunteers who has helped shape the Conservancy. After enrolling in the Downtown Walking Tour docent training, she became its manager, developing a loyal cadre of docents and providing the highest level of service for the public. After becoming a docent for the Annenberg Community Beach House, she developed new docent training materials about actress Marion Davies from her research at the Academy of Motion Pictures Library. She also launched the popular annual Happy Birthday, Marion! event at the Beach House. Whether costumed as Harpo Marx, leading a VIP tour, or marching in a Fourth of July parade, Kay’s contributions to the Conservancy’s success have been invaluable.

The Santa Monica Conservancy will be providing a weekly newsletter while much of our world is shut down due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Each week, we will bring you digital resources related to preservation with the aim of helping you connect with our community and beyond. Sign up here, if you’re not already on our mailing list.

As part of our weekly offerings, we are bringing you Discover the Neighborhood, free digital downloads of our tour brochures and booklets so that you can explore our city from the comfort of your home.

2504 3rd Street, 2424 4th Street and 2101 La Mesa Drive. Photos: Brian Thomas Jones

Discover the Neighborhood

Living in a Landmark

Two weeks ago, we reached out for your support in helping to save the Landmarks Commission. The impact of the global health crisis on our City and its historic preservation program has resulted in a restructured budget. It prioritizes essential City services as defined in the City Charter but includes suspension of this ever-needed Commission. More than 70 members of our preservation community wrote to City Council.

The Landmarks Commission is a fundamental responsibility of our local government. As defined by the municipal code, it is the heart of our City’s historic preservation program and part of the City’s planning framework. The Santa Monica Conservancy attends all Landmarks Commission’s public hearings and we must underscore that they are crucial for bringing to light historic information which City staff and consultants may not previously know. This community participation is a vital part of our process for identifying and protecting our valuable historic resources.

Additionally, we are very concerned about proposals to drastically increase applicant fees for Landmarks Commission services by as much as 5 to 10 times the existing fees. These increases are based on estimates for “full cost recovery.” This approach fails to recognize that historic preservation is a community benefit and makes designation of a landmark or historic district out of reach for all but the wealthiest property owners. Needless to say, it excludes the Conservancy and other nonprofits as well.

Conservancy Board members have met virtually with Planning Director David Martin and Interim City Manager Lane Dilg. We presented a number of specific strategies to restructure the Landmarks Commission that would reduce staff time, streamline processes, and reduce costs. We also offered our volunteer support in any capacity that could assist City staff. We do not yet know the results of these proposals.

However, be assured that our advocacy and your letters of support have made a difference! At the May 26 City Council meeting, Councilmember Ted Winterer, inquiring about the status of both the Architectural Review Board and the Landmarks Commission, was informed by Interim City Manager Lane Dilg that the ARB continues to meet in order to process project approvals, and that they are working on ways to allow the Landmarks Commission to continue. But we remain vigilant as long as the Commission is in limbo.

Saving historic places helps shape our identity and preserves the stories of our communities in a rapidly changing environment. We are so grateful for your commitment to historic preservation. Thank you!

We will keep you updated as soon as we learn what is proposed for the Council Budget Working Session on June 9. To read our third letter to City Council, click here. Our previous news post about our advocacy to stop the suspension of the Landmarks Commission can be found here.

Discover the history and architecture of the Marion Davies Guest House at the Annenberg Community Beach House. Designed by California’s first woman architect, Julia Morgan, the estate was built in the 1920s for actress and philanthropist Marion Davies by media tycoon William Randolph Hearst. Take a glimpse at the fantastic costume parties Davies hosted, which included guests like Clark Gable and Greta Garbo. And learn about the transformation of the landmarked Guest House and pool, which survive as the historic core of the estate today.

We thank the Annenberg Community Beach House and Santa Monica Conservancy Docent Council for creating the tour. Please note that the Annenberg Community Beach House is temporarily closed.

A view of Marion Davies estate.