By Ann K. Williams
Lookout Staff

June 6, 2011 – Detailed plans for The Village, a massive private development in Santa Monica's Civic Center District, are coming up for approval before the Architectural Review Board (ARB) soon.

More than four years after the ARB approved conceptual plans for some 325 units of housing atop ground floor shops and restaurants, city staff will present renderings from developer Related/Santa Monica Village, LLC of building and site designs specifying colors, materials and landscaping for the project. (see staff report)

“The plan...is expressive of good taste, good design, and in general contributes to the image of Santa Monica as a place of beauty, creativity and individuality,” City staff wrote in a report prepared by Senior Planner Tony Kim, Principal Urban Designer Steve Traeger and ARB Liaison Laura Beck.

The complex, bounded by Ocean Avenue, Viceroy Terrace, Main Street and Olympic Drive – an extension of Olympic Boulevard that has yet to be built – is designed to “relate to” the civic buildings, the future Palisades Garden Walk park and the hotels that are its neighbors.

Divided into three sites, the buildings range from four to ten stories high and are divided by plazas and gardens, the most conspicuous of these being a “living walk street” running parallel to the future Olympic Drive.

Inspired by the pedestrian walk streets in Ocean Park and Venice and by the local canyons and arroyos leading to the ocean, the “living walk street” will separate Site A and Site B. The retail outlets of Site A will open out onto the walk street, and outdoor dining areas will cap its west and east ends.

Each site has its own purposes and aesthetic.

Site A, the northernmost group of buildings, will face the Palisades Garden Walk and act as an entranceway to The Village.

A “floating glass sky bridge” over the entrance to the “living walk street” will connect the two six-story buildings comprising the site, which will house approximately 65 market-rate condominiums above ground floor retail units.

Angled walls and varying stepbacks will break up the facade, and balconies, walkways and varying rooflines further establish a residential scale.

Blue, yellow, orange and green will be the featured colors, and a combination of stucco, composite cement panel siding and laminated glass panels will vary the structures' textures.

Across the walk street, Site B will house 160 affordable units, including ten “loft-style artist live/work units.” The buildings range from four to six stories, and step down as they approach the walk street to maximize the sunlight reaching the public area.

A central “family garden court” runs perpendicular to the walk street and is visible through the entranceway in Site A. A number of other green spaces and a children's “nautical-themed” playground dot Site B, some of which are accessible only to the residents and their guests.

Cement plaster is used throughout Site B and the buildings that house the artists' units feature dark metal panels on the upper floors, contrasting with the lighter lower levels. Shades of green, dark orange, light and dark gray and parchment are Site B's featured colors.

Site C is separated from the two northern sites by a four-story office building. It will contain approximately 93 condominium units within its 10 stories.

One building, Site C is shaped in the pattern of a three-fingered hand, with the fingers reaching out toward Ocean Avenue, surrounding a pedestrian plaza and a “recessed podium deck level.”

Ground-level shops feature 15-foot high windows and the upper floors step back, creating large terraces. Changes in color and texture, as well as the overall asymmetry of the building contrasts with the uniformity of the RAND Corporation building behind it. The color palette is more muted than that of Sites A and B, featuring silver gray, beige and white to go with its immediate neighbors.

The Village is served by subterranean parking garages.

Landscaping is somewhat complicated by the garages, and in many cases trees and greenery will have to be placed in planters.

Retail and outdoor dining needs have impinged on the landscaping requirements of the Developer's Agreement for Site C, and the ARB has been asked by staff to consider ways it can compensate for that lack, including by modifying the Ocean Avenue medians required of the developer.

The City expects the developer to use the latest in green landscaping techniques, including planting native flora and using state-of-the-art water conservation methods.

The ARB will meet on Monday, June 6 at 7 p.m. in the City Council Chambers at City Hall, 1685 Main Street.