JKA was asked by the City of Santa Monica to develop design guidelines for multi-family and mixed-use corridor districts. The guidelines are integral with a revised zoning code being simultaneously developed by planners Dyett and Bhatia. The Guidelines must also reflect both public comments and public input from the City’s Architectural Review Board and Planning Commission. These public processes revealed two key shaping concepts: 1) provide specific design direction for new infill projects; and 2) encourage design flexibility, creativity, and innovation.

Utilizing these two concepts, the Draft Guidelines include overarching design objectives that provide a framework for new infill architecture. Each project requires compliance with these objectives to address basic design principles such as the orientation of buildings to sidewalks, the provision of architectural transitions between structures, and the realization of publically accessible at-grade open space. The overarching objectives are then each related to a second tier of design considerations, which serve as inspiration rather than prescription. These latter ideas encourage both traditional and contemporary design while allowing for flexibility of approach. In combination, the objectives and considerations, relate new design to Santa Monica’s context and at the same time provides design means to assist in the realization of the architectural quality desired by City decision-makers and the community.

Upon completion of the Draft Guidelines, JKA was asked to develop a series of case studies to test their use, impact, and effect on a variety of sites. The outcomes and recommendations of this second “test fit” phase shaped the final guidelines product that was presented to the City for approval and adoption in 2015.