Conservancy News

The City of Santa Monica is currently updating its Historic Resources Inventory (HRI), a database which lists existing and potential historic resources throughout the City and provides an important foundation for the implementation of the Historic Preservation Program. Two professional consulting firms, Architectural Resources Group and Historic Resources Group, will survey structures built through 1977 and develop historical context statements describing neighborhood, architectural, cultural, and social history. The new survey is expected to be released in spring 2017.

Your participation helps ensure that the HRI takes the broadest possible look at our built environment and the places that illustrate important aspects of Santa Monica’s history! Learn more at historicsamo.squarespace.com. Click here to contribute what you know about the architectural, cultural and/or social history of your own neighborhood and other parts of the City. You can also download a mailable form.

Photo credit Marcello Vavala.

For example, this building on 20th Street in the Pico Neighborhood was designed in 1937 by esteemed architect Paul Williams for the first African-American physician to live and work in Santa Monica. It has not yet appeared on the Historic Resources Inventory. If designated as a landmark, it would be protected from inappropriate alterations and become eligible for benefits and incentives such as:

• Potential property tax savings through a Mills Act Contract
• Waiver of Building Plan check and permit fees
• Priority plan check processing
• Application of California State Historical Building Code to alterations, which can often avoid unnecessary additional construction costs to bring properties up to current codes

Email samosurvey@historicresourcesgroup.com to be added to the mailing list for the City’s outreach meetings and other updates. Follow the City’s progress via @historicsamo and #historicsamo on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. To view a list of FAQs, click here.

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:

• September Architectural House Tour
• Preview of Fall Salon in Byers Masterpiece
• Preservation Design Award for Shotgun House
• SM Chamber Partners with Conservancy
• Five Ways to Research Your Property’s History
• More News, Reports, and Event Listings

Download the September 2016 newsletter 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!

The draft Downtown Community Plan (DCP), now targeted for adoption in the spring of 2017, proposes, among many other things, strengthening policies in several key areas “to ensure preservation of character in the Downtown.”

The draft plan recognizes the use of the Historic Resource Inventory (HRI) as an important planning tool and proposes to extend some protections for historic properties to those not yet designated – buildings that provide important context and sense of place in our downtown. This is especially important because many of the buildings on the HRI are listed as contributors to a potential historic district that is unlikely to be created because so many of the identified buildings have been altered or demolished.

The plan also recommends an update to our Landmarks Ordinance to improve designation of different levels of classification and protection for historic resources, addressing the longstanding request of the Commission that the Structure of Merit designation be strengthened or replaced. It recommends use of the California Historical Building Code for properties on the HRI, providing alternative ways of addressing code issues where adaptive reuse, rehabilitation or maintenance would otherwise require more extensive changes that threaten historic character.

Finally, the plan describes goals for additional programs that convey and celebrate the history of downtown and the need to identify a dedicated funding source to enhance and maintain our historic resources.

The Conservancy Board is highly supportive of these objectives, but questions how these goals will be achieved without an ongoing source of funding that does not rely on development agreements and additional professionally-trained staff dedicated to the preservation program. We are also concerned that protection of the downtown’s historic properties has become more difficult because the Landmarks Commission is no longer permitted to proactively initiate designation. We hope the final DCP will address these concerns so that the city can realistically enable implementation to match its lofty goals and policy objectives and assure us that historic resources will be protected.

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 Conservancy Tours Featured during COAST Open Streets
• The Gussie Moran House Tour
• Historic Resources Inventory Update
• Progress on the Downtown Community Plan
• More News, Reports, and Event Listings

Download the June newsletter and 2016 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!

The Los Angeles Chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) held a Green Art Competition on St Patrick’s Day benefiting the Conservancy’s Preservation Resource Center (PRC). The contest was held at a Pirch showroom in Glendale, California and challenged ASID designers and industry partners to create artworks out of recycled materials. The winning projects were featured during the recent LA Design Build Expo at the Los Angeles Mart.

Cynthia Burnett, past president of ASID-LA, reached out to Sarah Barnard, an interior designer and LEED Accredited Professional, to recommend a nonprofit beneficiary headquartered in a LEED-certified building with a mission related to housing and community service. Barnard made the recommendation for the Conservancy’s Preservation Resource Center (PRC).  ASID raised $2000 in entrance fees, and donated this sum to the Conservancy .