Ocean Park Boulevard Complete Green Street
Location
Santa Monica, California
Client
City of Santa Monica
Completed
2013
Awards
2014 League of California Cities, the California State Association of Counties, and the County Engineers Association of California
Outstanding Local Streets and Roads Project Awards Program: Ocean Park Boulevard Complete Green Street
2013 American Public Works Association, Southern California Chapter, Building Excellence Shaping Tomorrow, Project of the Year Award: Ocean Park Boulevard Complete Green Street Project in the Storm Water Quality Category
In the 1960s Ocean Park Blvd. was transformed from a neighborhood street into a highway, splitting the community and severing connections to the beach. For 20 years the neighbors sought to repair the damage. In 2008 the City retained Kaliski to facilitate
a participation and design process that would satisfy the community and realize a redesigned multi-modal link to the ocean.
The City’s goal was to develop a consensus for shaded sidewalks, bikeways, calmed traffic, enhanced pedestrian safety, and storm water collection. Through a series of workshops Kaliski shaped a concept that addressed local concerns such as driveway obstructions, loss of curbside parking, and inappropriate trees, and developed a design for widened sidewalks, crosswalks, landscaped medians with trees, bikeways, and stormwater retention.
The consensus Schematic Design was approved by the City and then implemented by a team led by Kimley-Horn. Kaliski and his firm were responsible during the construction phase for ensuring the design intent, maintaining community relations, and providing construction documents for the urban design improvements.
Today the on-time and on-budget project has re-established Ocean Park Blvd. as a street that promotes walking and biking, while reconnecting the neighborhood to the ocean.