Structures not going anywhere Preservationists prevailed in getting history landmarked
CITY HALL A series of aging buildings and structures around Santa Monica, once doomed to be reduced to rubble, will be around for the new year.
Starting with the pending demolition of the old Zephyr surf and skate shop at the corner of Main and Bay streets in Ocean Park, historic preservationists had a busy 2007 in which they seemingly were in constant mobilization mode to save structures that held both historic and cultural value.
While a number of buildings, and even a park, were granted a reprieve by the Landmarks Commission (or the City Council, when the commission’s decisions were appealed), only a handful captured the attention of the community, galvanizing preservationists that banded together in efforts to salvage buildings from impending doom.
The issues concerning the redevelopment of Horizons West Surf Shop, at 2001-2011 Main St., into a mixed-use project consisting of ground floor retail and 14-residential units actually began when a notice for demolition was affixed to the building in October 2006, drawing cries from long-time Dogtown followers.
The building, while appearing architecturally uninspiring, holds the cultural significance as serving as the birthplace of modern skateboarding, created by a group of street kids, known as the Z-Boys, that rocked the extreme sports world when it introduced a revolutionary style of skate-boarding during a national competition in 1975.
The team was led by Jeff Ho, the co-founder and owner of what was then Zephyr and Jeff Ho Productions, which closed in the late 1970s and was subsequently replaced by Horizons West Surf Shop, owned by Randy Wright since 1987.
The demolition permit was withdrawn once the building owner learned about the skateboarding history that took place at the site, said Juli Doar, the property owner, during a Landmarks Commission meeting last year.
Ocean Park residents, former Z-Boys and Ho himself spoke publicly in favor of not only preserving the building, but keeping Horizons and Wright as long-term tenants.
Following a series of community workshops and blueprint iterations, the team at Howard Laks Architects unveiled a proposal in April that would keep the retail space on Main Street, which houses the original Zephyr store and the adjacent Horizons West Surf Shop, and tear down the back units in favor of the apartment building. The compromise plan seemed well-received by the community and the commission, which voted the following month to landmark the building housing the retail space, keeping it intact in perpetuity, while allowing development to take place in the back.
“I’m happy for the city of Santa Monica, glad that they’ve acknowledged the fact the building needed to be saved for historical and cultural value because of the surfing and skating industry that has been a part of Santa Monica for years,” Ho said in May 14.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 26, 2007. Read the original PDF.