Project Makes a Splash : Water Garden to Include 2-Acre Pond
The largest single new office project on the Westside will be under way in late spring or early summer in Santa Monica.
Called The Water Garden, the $300-million, 1.26-million-square-foot development will be built in a heavily landscaped and waterscaped environment around a 2-acre reflecting pond on a 17-acre site bounded by Olympic and Cloverfield boulevards, Colorado Avenue and 26th Street.
J. H. Snyder Co. of Los Angeles will develop it in a joint venture with California Federal Savings & Loan Assn., the same team that developed the $300-million, 1-million-square-foot Wilshire Courtyard, which opened last August across the street from the Los Angeles County Art Museum.
Designed by McLarand, Vasquez & Partners of Costa Mesa, The Water Garden will consist of four 6-story office buildings clad in cast stone with polished granite detailing.
Each building will have balconies and a 2- or 3-story atrium with shops and restaurants. Office floors will vary in size from 25,000 to 60,000 square feet, capable of accommodating a range of tenants from the large, headquarters type to small law firms.
A plaza overlooking the 600-foot-long pond will serve as a community gathering spot for summer evening concerts and other events. More than 65% of the site will be landscaped to create a park-like environment.
The project will also have a child-care center, health club, a few medical office suites, concierges, security facilities and elevators to 2 1/2 levels of subterranean parking.
In response to area residents’ concerns that the development would cause too much traffic, a citizens committee was formed to work with the developers and the city, and Snyder agreed to pay the city $6.4 million in traffic improvement fees.
Snyder also agreed to provide on-site sewage treatment. Santa Monica officials have been looking for ways to cut sewage flow without clamping down excessively on development. Last December, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley called for banning new development in Santa Monica, Burbank and San Fernando as a way of reducing sewage.
Bradley contends that these three cities pump more sewage than their contracts with Los Angeles allow. Santa Monica is one of 30 cities and special districts that contract with Los Angeles for sewage treatment.
Among other concessions, the J. H. Snyder Co. committed $7.2 million toward improving low-income housing and parks, $300,000 for a center for the homeless in Santa Monica, and $150,000 for a citywide art program.
It is expected that The Water Garden will generate more than $1.2 million in annual revenues and create 5,000 jobs when completed in the fall of 1990.
