Project Description
The new Santa Monica Place changes an obsolete, enclosed, multi-level mall into a dynamic urban heart that celebrates the cultural and geographic openness that makes Santa Monica a great place to live, work, play and visit.
Commissioned by Macerich to renovate the outdated mall, The Jerde Partnership set out to create a vibrant and intimate public setting rather than a shopping center. Blending timeless urban principles that predate conventional malls with its organic approach to retail design, Jerde carefully and intricately wove the project into the existing city fabric. The firm opened up the mall by removing the roof, creating generous open spaces, and establishing pedestrian connections that extend the famous Third Street Promenade and strengthen the surrounding city core. By incorporating forms, materials, and landscaping found throughout the city, Jerde enhanced the project’s natural fit, both aesthetically and functionally, in the seaside village of Santa Monica.
The new Santa Monica Place replaces a dead mall with a vibrant, open-air district that fills in a vital missing piece within thriving downtown Santa Monica. By seamlessly connecting its popular and diverse surrounding uses, creating new public spaces, and attracting a new caliber of retail tenants, including new department store anchor concepts, it will become the hub of Santa Monica and create a new destination in greater Los Angeles.