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# College buys downtown building for $8.6 million BY ANDREW H. FIXMER
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/college-buys-downtown-building-for-8-6-million-by-andrew-h-fixmer/
- Published: 2002-06-05T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T00:19:05.000Z
- Author: Carolyn Sackariason
- Tags: Education, Downtown, #archive-import

*SMC’s emeritus college receives permanent home*

Santa Monica College has purchased a downtown building for its newest satellite campus.

The $8.65 million building is the college’s first purchase as part of its voter-approved $160 million bond passed in March.

The SMC Board of Trustees voted unanimously Monday to purchase the four-story glass building on Second Street to give SMC’s emeritus college a permanent home.

“The college made it clear that its No. 1 priority for the use of Measure U funds was a new and permanent home for emeritus college,” said SMC President Dr. Piedad F. Robertson. “This action fulfills that promise and opens a new and exciting chapter in the history of this wonderful program.”

The emeritus program is designed for older adults and provides classes on everything from the arts to current affairs to health. In its 27-year history, the college has grown from less than 200 students to a current enrollment of 2,900, with about 80 instructors.

The new facility — located at 1227 Second St., between Arizona Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard — is 24,000 square feet — four times larger than the current emeritus facility at 1433 Second St.

The current space is rented by SMC from the City of Santa Monica and is at ground level, under a municipal parking structure.

“This new facility is going to be terrific, said Maggie Hall, associate dean of emeritus college. “We will no longer have noise from cars overhead, no more noisy buses practically right at our doorstep, and much more space.”

Also, college officials said emeritus will no longer be subject to the uncertainties of renting space on a month-to-month basis.

The new building will feature a 725-square-foot art gallery on the street level, a large lobby and registration area, a multi-purpose room, classrooms, conference rooms, lecture halls, and more.

Located next to a large parking structure and on bus routes, the building also features outdoor patios and balconies.

The structure is still under construction because the developer, Beitler Commercial Realty Services, is building it to meet the strict architectural standards applied by the state to educational facilities.

“It’s a shell of a building so they are building it to our specs,” said SMC spokesman Bruce Smith.

The architect is RTK, which is partly operated by Santa Monica City Councilman Herb Katz.

College officials hope to move the emeritus program into the new building in late November.

Emeritus college courses are currently offered at its Second Street location, at SMC’s Madison campus at Santa Monica Boulevard and 11th Street, and in parks, community centers, churches and other locations throughout Santa Monica.

Hall said the new facility will be able to handle the bulk of emeritus classes but the program will continue to offer classes in various neighborhoods because students often like to have classes near their homes. In addition, a number of community service classes — primarily night classes — currently offered at Madison will likely be moved to the new site.

“Emeritus college has moved 13 times in its 27-year history,” said Hall, who has been with the program since it started.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/060502-03_01.jpg)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 5, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/060502.pdf?ref=smdp.com)