Student Architect’s Design Proposal

Doug Heaton 
Special to the Mirror 

   Ed. note: This is one of the students’ proposals. More will be featured in next week’s Mirror.
   In 1893, a pier was built near the Arcadia Hotel simply for the enjoyment of its guests and other visitors. This may have set the precedent for other piers to come to the Santa Monica Bay. 
   From the 1920s, the Santa Monica Municipal and Newcomb Piers were the place for entertainment. In 1925, the Pier became the site of the largest ballroom in the world, La Monica Ballroom. It and other piers in Ocean Park lined the Pacific shore in attempts to attract visitors to the beach. 
   Today, attracting visitors is hardly a problem, Though the “sky ride” or “erupting volcano” don’t exist as in 1964, the Santa Monica Pier boasts its famed 1910 hand-carved merry-go-round, a roller coaster, a solar powered Ferris wheel, and its unprecedented views of the sunset.
   Among the historic features of the pier, new attractions such as Pacific Park have appeared. In addition, restaurants offer selected cuisine with a view.
   In 1988, a revitalization of the Santa Monica Pier began. Moore, Ruble, Yudell Architects and Campbell & Campbell Landscape Architects developed handicapped access to the pier from Ocean Front Walk. Their design for Carousel Park included the space the UCLA Ocean Discovery Center now occupies.
   The center is now suggesting a large expansion in order to accommodate increased visitor numbers. In essence, the new Ocean Discovery Center is to become a “true ocean community center dedicated to education and science, public outreach and conservation, and the celebration of the ocean.”
   The Santa Monica Pier has always been a surface upon which people travel in a linear fashion to different events. Nonetheless, very few events, besides the existing bike path, interact with the plane of the pier. With these things in mind I have developed my design for the UCLA Ocean Discovery Center.
   The building was designed to become a series of events that interacted with the plane of the pier; the exhibition halls changing level from one to the next are separated by numerous exterior courts, useful for tide pools, touch tanks, and eventual access to the beach level. Contrasting the fragmented arrangement of exhibit spaces, a level of classrooms establish a rhythm with their proportionate size and spacing, and their peaked roofs make use of southeast winds for natural ventilation. The intent of breaking up the program in to numerous spaces was to maintain a scale relative to the pier.
   This also provided for roof terraces and garden spaces useful for the education and discovery program, perhaps also for the best views around.
It was crucial that this design adapt to the historically significant context and not compete with it. Existing conditions such as the pier edge were maintained; and, public zones (spaces for concerts) were developed.