DOWNTOWN, SM With the push of a button and roughly 10 ensuing seconds filled with anticipatory cheering, the familiar Santa Monica Place sign came face down Thursday morning in a ceremony that marked the beginning of a new era for the shopping center, a moment that some perhaps viewed as cathartic.
In a symbolic kick off to a nearly two year reconstruction of the outdated mall, developer Macerich Co. held a special event highlighting the destruction of the most notable piece of hardware associated with Santa Monica Place — an ‘80s retro sign that has greeted mall visitors entering from Broadway for the past 28 years, a celebration marked by pyrotechnics and a performance by the UCLA marching band.
“There is much to look forward to as this project gets underway,” Randy Brant, the executive vice president of real estate for Macerich, said at the ceremony.
The Frank Gehry-designed mall opened in 1980 and at its prime served as a thriving complement to the Third Street Promenade. Vibrancy had dissipated in the past few years as tenants were put on shorter-term leases while Macerich Co., which purchased the mall in 1999, made way for plans to give the enclosed shopping center some new life, adopting a tag line, “a star is reborn.”
The project includes tearing the roof off of the shopping center’s central spine, making way for an open-air walkway and rooftop dining deck, providing shoppers with a panoramic view of the Pacific Ocean. When the three-story mall opens in late fall 2009, it will better connect with the promenade, Santa Monica Pier and the Civic Center, Macerich officials said.
Alongside the mall project, City Hall is considering renovating parts of the two parking structures that abut the mall, possibly adding ground level retail and parking attendants.
The mall closed in February but mall anchor Macy’s is staying open during renovations.
“This will be an important connection point as it relates to the promenade, the civic center and beyond,” City Manager Lamont Ewell said during the ceremony.
While the main event was the downing of the mall sign, the celebratory remarks that came from Macerich and city officials surrounded the collaboration between the community and the developer in bringing the project to fruition.
Macerich officials originally proposed building three, 21-story office towers that included office and retail spaces and residential units. Those plans were nixed after residents decried the proposal, calling it out of character with the neighborhood.
After scrapping their initial plans, the developer held a series of community workshops and the result was an open-aired shopping center that would utilize Southern California’s greatest resource — the weather.
“We’re creating a place for the community to have pride and enjoyment,” Bob Aptaker, the vice president of development, said.
The event drew more than 100 people, congregating on the Broadway block of the promenade where Macerich had erected a stage and a large screen television, the audience covered in a sea of brown T-shirts worn by the company employees, each emblazoned with the mall tagline.
“This is a very auspicious moment in Santa Monica history,” Mayor Pro Tem Richard Bloom said.
Standing with Aptaker and Brant, the three men jointly placed their hands on a button that would activate the pyrotechnics show and the fall of the sign.
“We will see you in fall of 2009 in the new Santa Monica Place,” Brant said.
With that, the men pushed the button, steam fuming from below as fireworks started shooting from behind into the air.
One by one, the three portions of the sign — Santa, Monica and Place — began falling face down.
Except for “Place,” which decided to stick stubbornly sideways above the ground.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 18, 2008. Read the original PDF.