Meister Leaves BIG Legacy

By Teresa Rochester

Judith Meister helped resurrect Santa Monica Pier after storms battered it to pieces. She oversaw the restoration of Carousel Park and, finally, was at the helm of the recently completed the Beach Improvement Group Project.

But after 17 years with the city of Santa Monica, Meister has announced she will retire at the beginning of the year.

"I'm retiring mainly to spend more time with my family," said Meister, who has served as the city's beach manager since 1996.

"We're really, really sorry to see her going out," Judy Rambeau, the city's communication coordinator, said. "But she's going out with a bang. She's finished up the BIG Project."

The $8 million BIG Project, completed earlier this year, included the renovations of Palisades Park, the chess park in south beach and the reopening of muscle beach.

"One thing that was really nice for me was to focus on Palisades Park," Meister said. "Palisades Park is a wonderful place. I feel really fortunate to have been involved in that."

Meister, a Santa Monica resident, began her work with the city a year before storms destroyed a quarter of the Santa Monica Pier in 1983. As pier manager, she oversaw the pier's rebuilding and the restoration of carousel park. Meister also spent several years with the Bayside District, which oversees the Third Street Promenade.

"I feel very fortunate about my years with Santa Monica," she said. "The projects that I have worked on were projects that were built."

There is, however, one more project to go. Along with becoming more involved with her children's school and gardening and skating on bike paths she helped plan, Meister said she will work in a consulting capacity on the 415 Pacific Coast Highway project. The project will restore the old Marion Davies beach estate and turn it into a public beach club with a meeting center and banquet facilities.

"I feel good about being able to do it," Meister said about her retirement, which is set for Jan. 7, 2000. "I worked for a long time and accomplished a lot and I'm proud. The city is a great place."