Renderings for the revamped Wyndham Santa Monica at the Pier are out, showing that controversial three-tower design that freaked everyone out when it was announced last year. The Holiday Inn-turned-Wyndham hired Venice-based architects Jerde Partnership (they did the Santa Monica Place update a couple years ago) to design the redevelopment, and here's what they've come up with: the three towers at Ocean Avenue, Colorado Avenue, and Main Street will step up in height from west to east. The shortest will be five stories and the tallest 15 stories, coming to either 174 or 195 feet. Each tower will have a viewing deck on top, and they'll have a total 211 hotel rooms and 25 residential units.
When we last heard from this project in March, a city planning commissioner was asking the hotel owner when he was going to give up plans for "so large a development on the site." Not yet, apparently! But city opposition hasn't wavered--earlier this week, three councilmembers proposed that Santa Monica pause discussions on any of the three contentious downtown hotels in the works: this one, the Frank Gehry-designed Ocean Avenue Project, and the Fairmont Miramar renovations. It just needs support from one more councilmember when it comes up for a vote next week.
The three councilmembers want to wait until the Downtown Specific Plan is adopted--which they hope will happen next March--before resuming discussions on these three projects. All three are significantly taller than allowed under current height limits. According to Santa Monica Lookout, Planning Director David Martin says that the proposal would slow down the projects, but that the city council won't be asked to vote on the development agreements before March 2014 anyway.
· Mixed Response for Call to Postpone Big Downtown Santa Monica Projects [SML]
· SaMo's Rebranded Holiday Inn Wants Three New Towers [Curbed LA]
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