Project size 23ha
Year 2018-2020
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The future of retail is changing. As one of the country’s premier shopping streets, Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade is at the forefront of this change. Through a public life study, onstreet engagement and temporary activation and programming, the team helped transform the street to keep up with the evolving retail landscape.
More invitations = A greater diversity of people
Revitalizing the retail landscape
redevelopment.
After the Experiment, more women and more youth stopped and stayed at the Promenade.
As one of the most successful pedestrianized shopping streets in the United States over the last 30 years, Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade–like many retail centers around the globe– has been subject to the challenges of the changing retail landscape. In 2018, the City of Santa Monica and Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. (DTSM) initiated “Promenade 3.0,” an effort to develop a comprehensive place-making framework for the street, centering around infrastructure improvements, innovative tenanting, and active public space management. The City of Santa Monica and DTSM engaged Gehl and RIOS to guide the redesign of the Promenade, facilitate public engagement, test ideas, and propose a concept for permanent
Gehl began with a Public Space Public Life (PSPL) benchmark survey that served as the project’s foundation, followed by a complete infrastructure survey. The PSPL survey revealed that while foot traffic on the Promenade was high, invitations to spend time were limited, especially after shops closed. When asked about the Promenade, visitors expressed a desire for more diverse food offerings, activities for children and families, and more events, while also stating that they loved the street atmosphere.
The team collaborated with the client to craft a vision and goals for Promenade 3.0 based on the surveys, and formulated a series of hypotheses for what improvements would lead to
these desired outcomes.
To test how visitors to The Promenade would respond to new and different invitations to play, spend time and interact with one another, the team developed a series of pilot projects. Known as “The Experiment,” this programming ran for 2 months and provided insights into what interventions would encourage larger and more diverse crowds to spend time. Before the Experiment, only around 1% of visitors would stop to spend time along the Promenade; during the Experiment this increased to nearly 10%.
Based on surveys and lessons learned from the pilot projects, the team created a concept design for the permanent redesign of the Promenade. The concept design was approved by the City Council in late 2019. Most recently, DTSM began work on the laneway transformation plan based on Gehl’s recommendations. The vision and design for Promenade 3.0, and the ongoing changes being carried out, support efforts to continue 3rd Street’s success by evolving and responding to changing times.
