Architect Hank Koning on Architecture, Planning and His Vision for Santa Monica

By Gathering Marbet
Special to The Lookout

Last of two parts

August 5 -- Last month, Santa Monica architect Hank Koning joined the City's powerful Planning Commission. The Lookout spoke to him about architecture, planning and his vision for Santa Monica.

Q: How do you see Santa Monica today?

I look back at Santa Monica and I say, I think that Santa Monica is a nicer place to live now today than it was 25 years ago. I think that the varieties of experiences that you can have are richer. We have wonderful art gallery experiences and wonderful shopping experiences. Twenty-five years ago the Third Street mall was empty, it was probably 80 percent occupied by the homeless, and there were no shops there. I mean the people and shops were on 4th Street.

Now the Promenade is a huge success that's been copied everywhere. And yeah, we have homeless people there, but the proportion of homeless to others is quite different. So it's a vital active place. So that's great. We have more housing opportunities and we have different types of housing opportunities. We have housing being built downtown and we have quite a bit of affordable housing that has been built. There are a lot of great private schools... I wish that the public schools were a little better provided for.

PS#1 Elementary School in Santa Monica

Q: What is your general philosophy on planning?

A: I think that we have some wonderful neighborhoods in Santa Monica that we need to protect. There are some wonderful single-family and multi-family areas and some others that have certain historic (significance), and that's great, we need to protect those. But then on the other hand there is a need for housing. It's a beautiful city to live in. I would hate to see us putting up gates saying people can't come here. So development should respect those existing communities, and the idea of developing housing over commercial along the boulevards solves that problem because it protects those existing residential communities and helps to reinforce the demand for public transportation.

Q: Are there other challenges that Santa Monica faces in development?

A: I think the planning process is very challenging for a lot of folks and I would like to sort of see that demystified a little bit. Sometimes the different departments aren't all on the same page, like on the green building technology stuff. Some of the new technologies aren't accepted by the building department for instance, so people are having challenges getting those things approved. One department is encouraging certain things and sometimes it's a little difficult. It would be nice if the whole process was cleaned up a little bit.

Q: How would you go about doing that?

A: First of all, I'm just new so I'm not sure how. But I think there should be a discussion between all the different departments. But right now it's very complicated getting through the City, getting approvals, I hear that over and over again. The City recently had a study to address some of this so I know that they are implementing improvements. So they are aware of it. I think it's the same with the status of buildings.

Q: How so?

A: Well, apparently the City’s policy is that if you want to demolish a building that is over 40 years old it goes to the Landmarks Commission and typically the way it's done now is that you file for a demolition permit. But I think that sometimes there are people who want to know what the status of their building is even before they contract the demolition, or if someone is buying the building. If you were paying millions of dollars for a building, you'd like to know what the status of it is, and if they give you a determination, maybe it could be good for a number of years. Because you see, these things change. It would be good for people to know what they can and can't do with their buildings. At the same token it would be nice for neighborhoods to know what they can and can't do -- what their neighbors can and can't do.

Shine House

Q: What inspires you as an architect?

A: I like simple things. I like living streets, streets where people are out and about. I think the whole issue of becoming independent of the car is something that's also important for those that are too young to drive or too old to drive. Recently Santa Monica had an incident with an older driver -- a couple of times, older drivers -- who maybe shouldn't be driving, or maybe wouldn't be driving if there were alternative ways of getting around. And I think that adds dignity to the lives of the young and the old.

Q: What are your architectural inspirations?

A: Hmm that's tough. Well obviously we have a grand inspiration, which is Frank Gehry of course, at UCLA, I worked with Charles Moore, and I love Irving J. Gill, and then there are a whole bunch of Californian modernists like Neutra, and Schindler. What's interesting is that in Santa Monica there's these examples of these modern buildings.

People always think that Santa Monica's heritage is the beachside cottages, but there are some wonderful buildings here. They are very simple, elegant structures designed with ease of living in mind. And of course I should add the Eames house to that, Charles Eames; that's my ideal.

It's the connection of the house to the landscape. The inside outside connection. And the Spanish haciendas have that going on with the courtyard and the outside space. But the typical bungalows don't really have that, but they put glass walls and sliding doors that opened up and you'd sit outside and dine. And then the Spanish courtyard Buildings would even have outside fireplaces.

Q: So when you are talking about development you are also looking for grounds that people come together in?

A: Exactly. For instance when we did the 5th Street housing project. It was family housing. What we did was we took the laundry -- typically the laundry room is put in the basement, and the community room is put in the courtyard -- well we put the laundry in the courtyard next to where the kids play. So, you know, people do their laundry -- every day someone is doing their laundry. So we put it there, and it's a pleasant space, you could sit outside and watch the kids play, and you could chat with your neighbor. Rather than be in a nasty and dark garage, where all you want to do is get out of there and go back to your room and watch TV. And then we said, well, for the community room, wouldn't it be great if it was actually down in the garage where if you had a party you wouldn't disturb anyone? Or if you had a bunch of kids that wanted to put a band together -- it could be the garage band, so it wouldn't disturb the other folks. So we sort of flipped it around so we could come from a social interaction point-of-view.

5thStreet Housing Project

Q: Do you do this sort of imaging process with all your work?

A: We project ourselves into the project. I try and imagine what it's like to be a single parent with a limited income. What would it be like to live in, say, the 5th Street housing project? What are the things I would like to have? I'd rather not have that laundry downstairs for instance. Or we've done this with hotels in skid row in LA. You know; what would I want in a hotel that doesn't have air-conditioning? So what I would want is a big window that I can open up so at night I can get that heat out. Or I'd like corridors that had windows to the outside. I'd actually like the corridors to self-ventilate.

Q: Do you have a name for that process?

A: I don't have a name for it, but it's a very pragmatic approach to architecture. And then there is the whole thing about, what does this building look like? What's its visual appearance? That's more about what to do with proportions and materials. However if you don't get the basic stuff, the basic living arrangements, the environment, all the nice materials don't mitigate having bad form. A beautiful building in the wrong spot isn't as nice.

Q: What do you mean by "wrong spot?"