McDonald’s Project Fails to Meet Muster

By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer

April 8 -- The developer of the McDonald’s site near the pier failed to get a break from the Architectural Review Board Monday night when his proposed three-story, mixed-use project, which has been in the works for a decade, was sent back for redesign.

Clearly frustrated and pounding the podium with his finger, Norman Kravetz, argued that the basic plan for the proposed 75,000-square-foot post-modern building on the corner of 2nd Street and Colorado Avenue had been green lighted by the City Council nearly a year ago.

But several board members countered that although the delays were lamentable, the design the board was seeing for the first time was too “suburban” for such a prominent site and could be found in anywhere in America.

“I look at this as a missed opportunity,” said Board Member Rodolfo Alverez. “The architectural conversation did not engage the signature view (towards the pier) of Santa Monica.

“It seems to ignore the idea of the pier,” said Alvarez, who pushed for a “marine theme.” “I would have enjoyed seeing… a building by the ocean with a view of the pier as a flow of imagery toward the sea. It could be a building in Nebraska.”

Efforts by Kravetz and his architect, Tom Landau, to get Alvarez to be more specific, failed.

“What criteria will you give me, after spending… millions of dollars and many thousands of hours at the direction of this City all the way to get to this point and come back tonight with no direction?” Kravetz asked.

“Specifically, how do we create a design other than what you have in your mind as what you would like to see there, which could be spectacular, but I have no idea how to direct my next $500,000 worth of fees to my architect?

“This was discussed many times with planning, this was discussed many times with City Council and always, all the way through the process, every compromise the City has asked us to do on this project has been done and placed within the project.”

Major redesigns undertaken in the last year, Landau said, “were almost the death of the project.” They included connecting surface and subterranean parking, moving a parking entrance from Colorado to Second Street and expanding setbacks off the street to accommodate increased pedestrian traffic.

But Chair Sergio Zeballos noted that the board had several problems with the design of the project, which in addition to housing the McDonald’s will include ground level stores, second and third-floor offices and a courtyard park shaded with leafy trellises.

Sticking points for the board included two towers used for elevator shafts (which Zeballos found 15 years out of date), suspension wires to hold up awnings, the use of foliage and the blending of the McDonald’s logo and colors with the new structure.

As board members passed around a worn and dusty model, Zeballos said he understood the applicant’s feelings and that the ARB has seen applicants in this situation many times before.

Zeballos admitted nearly a decade was a long time for the project to be in the works and explained that the City is in the midst of attempting to streamline the review process.

“In a sense, we are not concerned about how far you’ve come on this project,” said Zeballos. “We have to treat it as if it were the first time.”

Recent delays were not the planning department’s fault, Senior Planner Paul Foley said after the meeting.

The applicant, Foley said, did not resubmit the plan the council approved last May until December. Planning staff, including the City’s new urban planner, Stephanie Reich, met with the architects in February.

Reich said at Monday’s meeting that Landau chose not to incorporate many of the changes they discussed earlier this year, and that may in fact be part of the reason for the latest delays. Landau disagreed.

Although many on the Board expressed their sympathy and listed many things they found positive about the project, Landau’s head shook in apparent disbelief as he listened to board members list what they found wrong with his proposal.

The applicant is expected to resubmit the project to the Board possibly as soon as next month.

Now time, Kravetz warned, may be the new hurdle, since his backers have indicated may pull the plug on the project altogether if it is not approved soon.