By Carolyn Sackariason
Daily Press Staff Writer

PCH — A $24 million public beach club has been designed to incorporate both the old and new — reflecting the historical aspects of what was once a grandiose mansion built by newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst, while at the same time factoring in the community’s needs of today.

Perhaps one of the more popular amenities at 415 PCH — also known as the old Marion Davies estate — will be the public pool and pool house. The pool will have colorful tiles reminiscent of the designs at Hearst Castle and the surrounding marble will be rehabilitated, according to city staff.

The City Council on Tuesday approved the schematic plans for the project, which were prepared by Frederick Fisher and Partners, the project’s design architect. Frederick Fisher and Partners is an internationally-recognized architecture firm based in West Los Angeles, and specializes in art-related design, historic building rehabilitation and residential work.

The project is funded by a $21 million grant through the Annenberg Foundation, and a $3 million contribution by City Hall.

The pool deck will be surrounded with chairs and chaise lounges, and a children’s water play area will be located just to the north of the pool. To the east, a two-story pool house will be designed to recall the physical and formal stature of the mansion, built in the 1920s for Davies, Hearst’s mistress and a well-known actress of her time. A new colonnade that will frame the shaded deck area is reminiscent of the spatial quality and architectural scale of the mansion’s original multi-story porch, according to city staff.

The first floor of the pool house will have changing rooms, lockers, equipment storage and office functions. The second level will provide a viewing deck of the Pacific Ocean similar to the upper floor balconies the mansion once had. The second-floor community room will be used for informal recreation.

A beach walk that will run north to south in front of the property will follow the historic 1921 mean high tide line. Beach volleyball, paddle tennis courts and a small beach concession stand will be located at the north end of the property. A children’s area will include play equipment and rubber safety surface paths. Showers and foot washes will be located at both north and south entrances to the beach from the parking lot, restroom area and the intersection of the Beach Walk and Ocean Walk.

An event house will be able to accommodate up to 200 guests at public and private functions. Its amenities include an event room, a catering kitchen, restrooms, and elevators to access the second level pool house viewing deck and community room. The event court will be a paved area shaded by a grove of trees, where people can picnic.

The north house and terrace garden will undergo rehabilitation, conforming to local, state and federal historic preservation guidelines. The interior floor plan of the north house will have built-in features like cabinetry, stair rails, a decorative marble fireplace, hand-painted bathroom tiles and a crystal entry chandelier. A moveable partition wall will be installed so a large meeting room can be created, according to city staff. The ground level will be dedicated to interpretative and cultural programming for visitors, meeting spaces, as well as a small kitchen and other office functions. The upper level will provide space for meeting rooms, with ocean views. The terrace garden, located just west of the north house, will accommodate small outdoor gatherings.

There will be 280 parking spaces on two lots at the property, including 162 existing spaces for public beachgoers, with 374 projected spaces expected to be needed if facilities are in full use at the same time.

Video cameras are also due to be installed, as well as onsite staffing, including nighttime security.

City Hall hopes to begin construction on the project in December of 2006. The renovations are expected to be completed in time for a public opening by January of 2009.

In October of last year, project leaders and consultants met with 110 community members to discuss the emerging design schemes to rehabilitate the site. Two workshops were hosted by Pankow Special Projects, Ltd., the Pasadena-based design firm contracted by City Hall in July to manage the project from conception to completion.

City staff and Rincon Consultants, Inc., City Hall’s environmental consultant, are preparing the final environmental impact report which will be considered by the Planning Commission for certification in February 2006.

The economic assumptions of the facility outlined in a plan approved by the City Council in 1999 point out that while the goal is to have it be financially self-sustaining, there is a likelihood that City Hall will need to subsidize the operation, said Barbara Stinchfield, director of community and cultural services at City Hall.

At the request of a councilmember, city staff provided on Tuesday a financial breakdown of operating revenue and expenditures for the first and second year of the facility’s operation. Year one, which is the start-up phase, will require a significant subsidy while year two could possibly be a break-even year, depending upon how much the facility is used and at what rates City Hall charges.

“The intent of this project is to generate revenue to offset the costs of the recreational facilities,” Stinchfield said. “But these are all very preliminary estimates based on working assumptions.”