Conservancy News

Every year the Conservancy celebrates the preservation of Santa Monica’s architectural and cultural heritage by honoring exemplary projects and contributions.

Since 2004, award-winning projects have included residences, commercial and institutional buildings, from small to large, ranging from restoration, renovation, rehabilitation, and adaptive reuse to contemporary additions to historic buildings and homes. Awards are also presented to individuals for their stewardship of historic properties as well as for community service contributions as volunteers and advocates of preservation.

The awards presentation will be held at the Conservancy’s 2018 Annual Meeting. Don’t miss this spectacular event as we celebrate, recognize, and are inspired by the people and the projects that bring preservation to life in Santa Monica. A complete history of the Preservation Awards can be found here.

Nominate a person, structure or group for a 2018 Award! Send an email to [email protected] by January 31 and include:

1. A brief description of the individual, organization or project, and why you believe it warrants an award. A specific award category can be included in your proposal, but is not mandatory.
2. Your contact information (name, address, phone number).
3. A photo of the site if possible.

by Amy Green, Commissioner

Each Landmarks Commission meeting begins with a historic exploration of a physical or built detail unique to Santa Monica. The history of accessing the Santa Monica Beach was the topic of the July meeting. Commissioner Margaret Bach addressed the natural and man-made access points that have led residents and visitors to Santa Monica’s sandy shores since the late 19th century. Bach’s presentation encouraged more questions than answers as she appealed to Santa Monica residents and patrons to share any information they might have about the history of the stairs, inclines and overpasses leading to the beach.

927 Ocean Avenue.

The Commission reviewed demolition permits, considered the potential designations of Landmark Structures, and approved Certificates of Appropriateness for two historic properties. All of 909-911 Montana Avenue has been landmarked; this includes two multi-residential buildings and one commercial structure as well as the land on which they are sited. This property is both unique in its blending of Streamline Moderne and Spanish Revival architecture and a representative example of a 1940s mixed-use property that reflects both multi-family residential and commercial development on the Wilshire and north of Montana areas of Santa Monica.

The second newly designated property, 927 Ocean Avenue, was built in 1922 and is a rare example of a 1920s Mediterranean Revival apartment hotel built for the early tourism industry. After thorough research and evaluation, Planning Department staff concluded that the apartment hotel exemplified, symbolized, or manifested “elements of the cultural, social, economic, political or architectural history of the City.” Originally constructed as an apartment hotel, it illustrates major patterns in the development of Santa Monica’s business and architectural history and is now an apartment house.

At the June 27 City Council Meeting, Council voted unanimously to support moving forward on the “temporary” multipurpose sports field in place of the surface parking lot on the Civic Center site and to move forward with the Request for Proposals (RFP) seeking a development team to reimagine, renovate and operate the Civic Auditorium. The motion included a parking study intended to plan for the loss of parking resulting from the addition of the field and an effort to work with current users of the parking, including the Courthouse, and possibly the Coastal Commission to develop alternatives to provide replacement parking as needed. Moving forward with plans for additional field space at Memorial Park was also included.

We are delighted to see the commitment to issue an RFP for the Civic Auditorium reconfirmed. However, the one concern that was not resolved was the softball field overlay proposed in the staff report, pending additional conversations with the school district.

The request to add a softball field overlay to the “temporary” multipurpose sports field at the Civic causes great concern because of its impacts on the landmark Civic Auditorium, which is still without a plan for rehabilitation more than a year after the Civic Working Group made its report to Council. The multipurpose sports field as defined in the 2005 Civic Center specific plan was intended for sports like soccer that are played on rectangular fields. The softball overlay will add 25% to the area required for the sports fields, moving the boundaries of the field very close to the Auditorium, and includes fencing and containment netting 26 feet high, as well as chain-link protected dugouts and bullpens. The visual impact of such a field on the Landmark structure seems totally inappropriate, and it would place additional limitations on the space available for shared use by a revitalized Civic Auditorium.

It seemed clear that all council members saw the placement of the softball addition to the temporary field at the civic, even temporarily, as a negative impact, but they supported further conversations with the district regarding the need and district funding of the additional expense. The Conservancy will remain concerned about the potential negative impact on the future of the Civic Auditorium until a different site is found for the softball field.

The Santa Monica Conservancy’s Preservation Resource Center received one of two Preservation Awards presented at the 47th Annual Los Angeles Architectural Awards, hosted by the Los Angeles Business Council (LABC) on June 22, 2017, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

The ceremony honored the Conservancy for its role in saving and rehabilitating a late 1890s Shotgun House, which now serves as a LEED Gold certified educational center and a model of adaptive reuse for the community. The City of Santa Monica, Fonda-Bonardi and Hohman Architects, Historic Resources Group, Minardos Group and FormLA Landscaping were also recognized for the Shotgun House project.

The Conservancy’s Preservation Resource Center was one of 45 winning projects selected from a competitive pool of over 200 projects, ranging from civic buildings and transportation hubs to commercial office and creative retail. Winners were selected by a jury panel representing a cross-section of industry experts, including representatives from top architectural firms, the City of Los Angeles, developers and engineers.

“The honored projects tonight provide a window into the values we hold dear and provide a path forward in how we all can improve our quality of life through beauty, function, and public benefit in one of America’s most dynamic cities,” noted Kai-Uwe Bergmann of the visionary architectural firm BIG, whose projects include Google’s California headquarters.

A full list of honorees as well as pictures of the winning projects is available at www.labusinesscouncil.org.

The latest Conservancy newsletter is now available online, as well as past editions. Our newsletter covers upcoming preservation events, preservation issues, features on the people and places of historic Santa Monica and much more.

In the current edition:

• Upcoming Annual Salon at a Landmark of the Future
• 2017 Preservation Awards
• Home Savings & Loan Building Landmarked
• New Conservancy Board Members
• Students Tour the Shotgun House & “Inkwell”
• 11th Street Bungalow Historic District Proposed
• Santa Monica History Buff Quiz
• More News, Reports, and Event Listings

Download the June 2017 Newsletter and Preservation Awards or view past issues here.

Our newsletter is published four times per year. Conservancy members receive a copy of each new issue in the mail. If you’d like to become a member, please join today!