Go big or go home SaMo: Bustler has some snazzy new renderings of the currently underway Ocean Park Blvd. "complete streets" project in Santa Monica. Los Angeles-based John Kaliski Architects designed the project, which will run from Neilson Way to Lincoln Blvd. and include a cornucopia of complete streets design features: 100 new trees, new crosswalks with overhead flashers, a stormwater collection system, 75 pedestrian-scaled light poles, wider sidewalks, painted bike lanes, bike racks, street furniture, and trash and recycling cans. The renderings on Bustler show a familiar shade of green for the bike lanes, so let's hope SaMo does a better job of keeping the paint on the ground than LA did when it first put in the Spring Street bike lane Downtown. According to Bustler, "When completed in early 2013, it will be the longest complete green street in the City of Santa Monica, and one of the longest in Southern California."
Bustler explains the benefits: "it will stitch together a previously divided neighborhood, conserve water, protect the ocean from runoff, and provide a vibrant pedestrian and bicycle avenue to and from the beach. As a template for change, it will show how streets designed for automobiles can be transformed into inviting parts of the urban landscape."
Santa Monica held a groundbreaking for the project in December. Construction is expected to last for about 12 months, with traffic occasionally reduced to one lane in each direction (but isn't it nice to know that something beautiful and innovative is on the other end of that temporary inconvenience?).
· Santa Monica Complete Green Street Breaks Ground [Bustler]
· New Year, New Ocean Park: SaMo Street Facelift Starts Soon [Curbed LA]
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