DEBUT OF A SPIFFED-UP OCEANFRONT

Among factors most of us will never have to deal with when landscaping our gardens: a cliff-side locale and millions of yearly visitors. No wonder Kathleen Garcia had “dreams and nightmares both” over her work on Santa Monica’s BIG (Beach Improvement Group) project. Garcia, a San Diego-based landscape architect with Wallace Roberts & Todd Inc., was among dozens of people who spent years on the redesign, which includes the original Muscle Beach south of the Santa Monica Pier and, to the north, Palisades Park, the recreational area popular with runners, picnickers and boulevardiers along Ocean Avenue.

Santa Monica city general funds and county proposition monies funded the undertaking, which began in 1995 and finished early this year. “The idea was to reinstate a real jewel in Santa Monica that needed a lot of polishing,” Garcia says.

The Palisades Park make-over included a new irrigation system; 90 new trees and the relocation of 19 others (Santa Monica city policy recommends that plants in municipal space be moved rather than discarded if possible); 222,700 square feet of mica-flecked “‘Palm Springs Gold” paving on the pathways; and 281,900 square feet of Tifgreen hybrid Bermuda sod.

Elaine Mutchnik, Santa Monica’s open space manager, says the face lift has been “tremendously received by the community.” But not everyone concurs. “It’s a little bit too manicured,” says Tony Sereno, a 60-something Sherman Oaks resident who has visited Palisades Park about three times a week for the past 25 years. “I liked it better when it was rustic. Rough it up a little bit.”