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Volume 7 Issue 86
Santa Monica Daily Press REAGAN’S ON THE MEND SEE PAGE 3
Since 2001: A news odyssey
THE DESIGN COMES FIRST ISSUE
Moving closer to City Hall Officials consider projects to consolidate departments BY MELODY HANATANI I Daily Press Staff Writer
fabric swatches organized by color rested on shelves covering nearly ever inch of wall space. “We know what people want. They want bigger rooms. They want nice stuff that’s better than what they have at home.” HBA is also a firm that is flexible. With officers all over the globe, designers can be moved to whichever market is hot. Currently Macau, located in the Pearl River Delta in China, is booming, Johnson said, outpacing Las Vegas’ growth. “In China and Dubai gambling is red hot,” Johnson said, which means more casinos and resorts. “We can swap (designers) from one culture to another. It’s great for career development.” In addition to going oversees, HBA has designed projects closer to home, including the Beverly Hills Hotel, The Wynn in Las Vegas, and The Spa at Bacara in Santa Barbara. For nearly half a century, the firm has been guided by its founders’ philosophy of creating a “sense of place,” a well designed and integrated package of fantasy, drama and creature comfort delivered on time and within budget.
CITY HALL The Santa Monica municipal family is about to become a tighter-knit unit. As the Housing and Economic Development Department prepares for a move this summer from its offices in east Santa Monica to the new digs on the corner of Main Street and Pico Boulevard, the City Manager’s Office is strategizing ways in which to bring the various municipal departments scattered throughout the city closer to City Hall. The point in pulling some of these departments closer is to improve operational efficiencies and customer service, according to Don Patterson, the assistant to the city manager for management services. “Right now, staff is spread out everywhere from the (Santa Monica) Airport to the (Santa Monica) Pier,” Patterson said on Tuesday. “It limits staff interactions ... somebody has to drive across town and that basically does impact efficiency and operation.” Aside from City Hall, the various departments are housed in the pier carousel building, Clover Park, the Airport Administration building on Donald Douglas Loop, as well as eight leased-spaces throughout the city, most of which are concentrated in Downtown Santa Monica. These departments include the Water Resources Division, which is located on Fifth Street, and the Cultural Affairs Division, which calls Fourth Street home. Approximately $211,000 a month is being spent on rent for the departments housed in the eight privatelyowned spaces. City Hall is currently in the process of finding a consultant to draft a master plan that would outline a longterm strategy in consolidating the various off-site departmental locations, a report that would update a 2002 study by the Sares Regis Group, which developed the City Hall Feasibility and Concept Designs. The difference from the 2002 study would be the inclusion of the Civic Center Specific Plan, which was adopted in 2005, Patterson said. The original Sares Regis study estimated that it would
SEE DESIGN PAGE 9
SEE PROJECTS PAGE 10
Kevin Herrera kevinh@smdp.com
DESIGNING HOSPITALITY: Thomas Johnson, director of marketing and business development for hospitality design firm Hirsch/Bender Associates, on Tuesday poses underneath the company's collection of flags from more than 50 countries that HBA has designed hotels and casinos in. HBA has been ranked the number one hospitality design firm for nine straight years.
Designer for the comfy home away from home BY KEVIN HERRERA I Editor in Chief NEBRASKA AVENUE With a reputation for having some of the finest hotels in all of Southern California, it only makes sense that Santa Monica would be home to the world’s leading hospitality design firm in Hirsch/Bedner Associates. The firm, located at the eastern edge of Santa Monica on Nebraska Avenue, was recently ranked number one in hospitality design for the ninth straight year by Interior Design Magazine, and it’s work on the Ritz-Carlton Beijing, Financial Street project helped the building earn top honors from Travel + Leisure Magazine. Walking through HBA’s expansive office on Tuesday, with flags from more than 50 countries where HBA has worked hanging overhead, Thomas Johnson, director of marketing and business development for the firm, made it clear why HBA, with its 450 employees and 12 offices worldwide, has remained competitive in the field of interior design as hotels, casinos and spas look to top one another in the game of attraction and comfort. “We’re a firm that’s reliable,” Johnson said with pride as he stood in the HBA’s research library, where hundreds of
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