Police department add could be demolished
A historic research firm may be paid nearly $70,000 to study the historical significance of City Hall.
Officials want the study completed before plans move forward to seismically retrofit the building for earthquakes and before the city possibly attempts a renovation in the near future.
The city council will decide whether or not to hire Hollywood-based Historic Resources Group to perform the study for $69,900 at its next meeting on Oct. 8. The same firm was hired two years ago to create a survey of historic homes north of Montana Avenue.
“It would tell us what kinds of features we need to keep and what features we need to preserve in City Hall,” said Mona Miyasato, Assistant to the City Manager. “We want to make sure we keep those features that will allow the building to remain historic.”
“It would tell us what kinds of features we need to keep and what features we need to preserve in City Hall. We want to make sure we keep those features that will allow the building to remain historic.” — — MONA MIYASATO Assistant to the City Manager
The funds for the study are being provided by a “Preserve L.A.” grant to study historic public buildings, which was given to the city last year by the Getty Foundation, Miyasato said.
Officials said Santa Monica City Hall is historically significant because of its exterior and interior architectural style and quality, its design by a major Los Angeles architect, its interior murals and its extensive tile work. They say the building has been a recognizable local landmark for over 60 years and continues to serve as the centerpiece of the city’s civic life.
“The sooner we get started on this, the better,” said Mayor Mike Feinstein, noting City Hall has been locally designated as a landmark for many years.
The first Santa Monica City Hall was a Mission Revival structure built in 1903, which was located on the corner of Fourth Street and Santa Monica Boulevard. But as the city grew exponentially in the 1920s and 1930s, the building was deemed incapable of supporting the growing number of city staff.
In 1938, the city came up with $370,000 to buy eight acres of land from the Southern Pacific Railway Company, where the Civic Center is currently located on Main Street. The area used to be a former freight depot for trains traveling up and down the West Coast.
Local architects were hired to design the building and supervise its construction, and a significant local artist, Stanton Macdonald-Wright, was hired to paint the murals depicting the history of Santa Monica on the north and south walls of City Hall’s interior lobby.
“The Stanton Macdonald-Wright murals along with really the whole lobby is the most significant aspect of the building,” said Lauren Friedman, the city’s senior architect.
Friedman said the railings, light fixtures, some of the offices — like the city manager and levy offices — and the jail could all be designated as having historical significance.
“The jail has been identified not necessarily for preservation but for recognition,” she said. “Even if we don’t retain these things, we at least can recognize that they are old.”
City Hall was originally a U-shaped, 40,000-square-foot building with 132 rooms to house various officials and departments. Since then, the building was expanded in 1957 to the east to house the police department and city jail.
Officials want to demolish the addition once the police department has moved into the new Public Safety Building, which will also house the administrative offices of the fire department.
That plan has been put on hold because the city is going through some difficult budget years as a result of the nationwide economic downturn and its impact on the local tourism trade. But some officials say it’s still likely to go through as part of the city’s $120 Civic Center redevelopment plan.
“It will create a public space between the back of City Hall and the Public Safety Building,” Feinstein said. “That’s the whole point of the Civic Center plan: to make the area more open and accessible to the public.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 3, 2002. Read the original PDF.