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By Lookout Staff

December 18 -- The grandeur of the original Marion Davies Estate was revived Monday when the City began installing 16 monumental white pillars that evoke the iconic white columns of what was once an opulent 100-room mansion on the beach.

The work, which is expected to take two days to complete, marks a milestone in the City’s plans to build a public beach club at 415 Pacific Coast Highway largely bankrolled with a nearly $30 million from the Annenberg Foundation.

The project includes the rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of the historic North House for meeting spaces and an interpretive center and the rehabilitation of the historic swimming pool and deck area.

In addition, the project -- which also has received funding from the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) -- calls for developing outdoor spaces for recreation and leisure, including two garden areas, sports courts, a family picnic and children’s play area, and a beach boardwalk towards the ocean.

“As evolution of the property has left few remnants of historic significance, the soaring white pillars will play an integral role in connecting new features with old site elements,” City officials wrote in a statement.

The 29-foot tall pillars pre-cast off-site from a special brilliant white concrete mixture will line the western side of the new pool house and “will create an important link between the historic pool and guest house,” City officials said.

“The pillars will reference the spacing and orientation of the columns from the original mansion,” officials said.

Developed in the 1920s by William Randolph Hearst for actress Marion Davies, the original estate became a gathering place for the rich and famous, who built lavish homes across the stretch of beach near Santa Monica’s northern border.

After Davies sold the estate, the mansion was briefly operated as a luxury oceanfront hotel and then demolished in the 1950s. The property was purchased by the State of California and leased to the private Sand & Sea Club for decades.

The site was briefly operated by the City as a seasonal public beach facility until the 1994 Northridge Earthquake damaged all the structures on site.

The City’s plans to develop and reuse the beachfront site seemed to be drifting nowhere for nearly a decade when the Annenberg Foundation stepped up with a major grant in 2005.

After a brief battle with nearby homeowners, the City earlier this year moved forward with construction of the new Annenberg Community Beach Club slated to open to the public in 2009.

For more information, please visit 415pch.smgov.net. To be added to the project’s interest list, please e-mail 415pch@smgov.net.