page_title: Edgemar
section_title: 1984–2007
hierarchical_section_title: Edgemar / History / 1984–2007
caption_attribution_description: English: Aerial View of Edgemar Site, Pre-Construction, by The Aerial Photographer, Commissioned for Edgemar
context_page_description: Edgemar, located at 2415–2449 Main Street in Santa Monica, California, is a mixed-use shopping center designed by architect Frank Gehry that combines early 19th century warehouses, a 1940s Art Deco office building and new construction.
context_section_description: In 1984, Thomas Eatherton, an artist whose studio was in a 2,000 square foot metal outbuilding on the north end of the site, showed neighbor Abby Sher, who had a family history of development, the original ice warehouse with its 25-foot ceilings, clerestory windows, and 8,000 square feet of clear span, and suggested its use as a museum. Sher took the suggestion as the impetus for creating a small piazza-like setting with the museum as its centerpiece. Influences were the Tuscan hill town of Volterra, with its central piazza containing, along with the usual shops and cafes, an Etruscan museum and a large fresco-adorned municipal building; and the 1948 neighborhood shopping center, The Brentwood Country Mart. Sher purchased the Edgemar Farms property in October 1984, and retained the use of the name, Edgemar, for the development.
  In the early 1980s, the model of melding art with commerce was being widely explored as a way to support art institutions. In planning or under construction at the time were the California Plaza project that incorporated the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the expansion of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, funded through the sale of zoning rights for the Museum Tower project; and the Orange County Performing Arts Center, which opened in 1986 as part of South Coast Plaza.
  Locally, the Edgemar project was part of wider restoration and adaptive reuse activities that included the Santa Monica Pier and Carousel and the transformation of the 1894 Roy Jones house into the Heritage Square Museum.
  Sher selected architect Frank Gehry to design Edgemar, in part because many of his early projects included renovated and new construction, his then predilection for modest materials including galvanized metal, chain link, concrete, and stucco—all materials found on the original site—and because of his early experience working in the office of  Victor Gruen Associates, premier shopping center architects.
  
  The 50,000 square foot Edgemar site's zoning was split down the middle—commercial on Main Street and residential on Second Street, but the 1908 warehouse and its 1928 addition were located in the residentially zoned portion of the property. A Conditional Use Permit was required to transform the original Imperial Ice Company warehouse buildings to accommodate a restaurant and museum as well as retail and office spaces.
  In hearings before the Santa Monica Planning Commission, the Santa Monica City Council, and the California Coastal Commission, the development enjoyed strong backing from the art community, but encountered resistance from neighboring residents who were concerned about the impact to the neighborhood on parking, traffic, and noise. With design modifications that included additional parking and the building of a sound barrier that doubled as a planter, the project was approved in August 1988.
  The 1908 warehouse, earthquake retrofitted, and with a mezzanine added, became home to the newly formed Santa Monica Museum of Art (SMMOA). The 1928 warehouse addition was converted to restaurant space. Of the 1940s art deco Edgemar office building, only the front wall with its art deco façade was retained; the new northwest wall was faced in green tile. Other new construction included a 2-story building for ground floor retail and second story office use, and a parking lot with one level of underground parking.
  When construction was completed in 1988, Edgemar comprised roughly 16,000 square feet of space for retail, 8,000 square feet for office, 3,500 square feet for the restaurant, and 8,000 square feet, plus mezzanine, for the museum. In 1997, 6,000 square feet of the museum space was converted into a theater center, and the remaining 2,000 square feet became Second Street-facing artist lofts. These modifications were designed by Koning Eizenberg Architecture.
caption: Aerial View of Edgemar Site, Pre-Construction, 1984, by The Aerial Photographer, Commissioned for Edgemar
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