$15 Million Downtown Face Lift

                                                              photos by Chris Zielin

   After months of traffic-tangling construction, noise and detours, Santa Monica’s new Downtown Transit Mall will officially open on Saturday, June 22, fearuring drinking fountains in the shape of life-sized Origami animals, carved granite map tiles and Paris-inspired bus shelters.
  A primary element in the transit mall, a six square-block area bounded by Ocean Avenue, Broadway, Seventh Street and Santa Monica Boulevard is dedicated bus lanes which are meant to improve traffic in the perpetually congested area.
   “We wanted to take the concentrated energy on Third Street and push it out to the businesses and restaurants on surrounding streets,” said Stephanie Negriff, Acting Director of Transportation Services for the City of Santa Monica. “And this is not just public art for art’s sake. The elements were integrated into the design of each functional feature. This seamless integration of art and architecture will be a lasting legacy that improves the quality of life and commerce in Santa Monica.”
   The new art and architectural elements will be showcased during the Transit Mall’s street party on Saturday, beginning at noon.
   A variety of musical groups will perform on stages on the Third Street. Promenade, at Broadway and Santa Monica Boulevard, and on the Santa Monica Pier. Cooking demonstrations will take place on the Promenade between the two musical stages. A 15,000 square-foot Kid’s Stage will be located at Second Street and Santa Monica Boulevard.
   Free passes to the Wild Rivers Theme park will be given away, one per family, to the first 10,000 riders of the Big Blue Bus, which will offer free rides to all passengers for the day.
   The Transit Mall’s new art and architectural devices include four Origami figures — a sea urchin, fish, frog and dragonfly — cast in bronze and hovering above drinking fountains where Second and Fourth Streets traverse Santa Monica and Broadway. Outlines cut into in the adjacent pavement represent an unfolded sheet of Origami paper. If the pavement could be folded along the cut lines, it would form the animal at that particular intersection, according to Robin Brailsford of Brailsford Design, a member of the Transit Mall’s design team
   In addition, there are 11 new structures that are patterned after the metal gridwork used in turn-of-the-century Paris architecture — seven new bus shelters and four new arbors.
   “The shelters on the westbound streets have blue glass panels and the bus lane is paved with a blue-colored crushed glass to symbolize the city’s ocean and marine elements. The shelters and bus lanes on the eastbound streets use green glass to represent the land and plant life,” Brailsford said.
   The arbors, whose vines will soon sprout blue flowers, have glass panels etched with seasonal hexagrams from the I Ching, an ancient Chinese text that blends poetry and philosophy. The shelters are equipped with touch-screen kiosks for bus timetables and other transit information.
   Scattered around the Transit Mall’s bus stops are granite tiles with a portion of a Santa Monica city map sandblasted into them. These 35 tiles are meant to help riders and pedestrians orient themselves.
   Other additions include 82 streetlights that were made in Barcelona and 46 new stainless steel bike racks.
   For more information, call (310) 451-5444 or visit the website at www.bigbluebus.com/streetparty.