A 47-foot high building with apartments, commercial space and creative offices will be built near Bergamot Station.
The building will join several other mixed-use developments planned near the Expo Line station, replacing a small office building and parking lot at 1618 Stanford St. with 47 apartments, 4,004 square feet of ground floor commercial space, 11,733 square feet of subterranean office space and a parking garage with 102 parking spaces for cars and 75 for bicycles. Four of the units will be available to households making 30 percent of the area’s median income.
The project consists of a single building with a corrugated metal and concrete facade broken into two masses framing a landscaped courtyard. Metal and glass storefronts form the ground floor facade, which makes the upper levels of the building appear to float. Exterior bridges and corridors leading to exposed staircases connect large openings in the upper levels.
Along Stanford Street, the building’s top floor is a landscaped roof deck covered by an open metal canopy, which City of Santa Monica staff said reduces the looming appearance of the building from the street.
There will be a metal sunshade and an awning door system above the glass storefronts along Stanford Street, which staff said make the building more attractive for pedestrians.
The project contains six studio apartments, 23 one-bedroom apartments, 10 two-bedroom apartments and eight three-bedroom apartments, all market rate. Three of the affordable units contain two bedrooms and the other is a one-bedroom apartment.
The Planning Commission approved the project Wednesday with the condition that the developer keeps the apartments from being used as corporate housing and that the Architectural Review Board review the facade facing Pennsylvania Avenue. It also noted that the apartments are too small and asked the developer to consider including a publicly accessible community room in the building.
The average size of the studios is 378 square feet, while the average size of the three-bedroom apartments is 894 square feet. Two-bedroom apartments will average 770 square feet and one-bedroom apartments 499 square feet.
“An 894-square-foot, three-bedroom apartment is not conducive to family life,” said Vice Chair Leslie Lambert. “Unless they’re hobbits, they’re not going to be comfortable in that small of a space.”
The project will be one of several new developments north of Bergamot Station, abutting Millenium Santa Monica, a building at 2930 Colorado Ave. slated to be completed this summer that will add 356 apartments and 25,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space to the area.
WS Communities, a spinoff of prolific and controversial developer NMS Properties, is planning a 190-unit building with office and commercial space at 3030 Nebraska Ave. a block south of 1618 Stanford St.
Millenium Santa Monica, 3030 Nebraska and 1618 Stanford were all designed by architect Michael Folonis.
Several developments are also planned west or south of Bergamot Station, including 1450 Cloverfield Blvd., 2225 Broadway and 1707 Cloverfield Blvd.
madeleine@smdp.com
