Santa Ana delays vote on modern loft building
Feb. 6, 2007
By AMY TAXIN
The Orange County Register
SANTA ANA – The City Council on Monday delayed voting on a modern lofts building proposed for Santa Ana's historic downtown after a state historical office voiced concerns about the project.
Jay Trevino, executive director of the city's planning and building agency, asked the council to refrain from voting after receiving a letter Monday from the state Office of Historic Preservation that raised questions about the project's impact on the downtown's historic character.
About 50 people rallied outside the council meeting Monday night against the proposed West End Lofts, saying the six-story, modern-style building doesn't fit in the neighborhood.
Developer Urban West is proposing the lofts for a vacant lot between two historic buildings at 320 W. Fourth St.
Makeover helps lift a loft to its full potential
Dec. 31, 2005
By CANDICE OLSON
Scripps Howard News Service
Brandon and Cory have just moved into a newly built two-story loft in the heart of the city. While the couple shares an artistic sensibility - Brandon is a photographer and Cory is a makeup artist - their loft did not reflect their creativity. The ground floor of the space was bland, underutilized and a real mishmash of furniture and styles.
When they purchased the place, they thought their hip digs would be big enough to both live and work in, but now they are worried they might have chosen too small a space for their multitasking needs.
I knew that with some proper design and reorganization I could make the space work, but I had two big challenges before me. The first was to maximize the smallish, horizontal room and turn it into a functional loft for living, working and entertaining clients. The second was to produce a harmonious balance of contemporary and casual. While they are Eastern city slickers now, Brandon and Cory are originally from the West Coast and wanted their space to incorporate a cool, laid-back feeling.
To help create that peaceful atmosphere, I decided to blend natural elements such as wood, fire and water. I started by anchoring the huge expanse of white walls with a focal point. I created an entire wall of wood cabinetry that allows for tons of storage and display space, and spiced it up with a beautiful, minimalist fireplace and a spectacular glass-tiled wall of cascading water above.
The other walls - all 16 feet high - were previously painted a bland builder's white. Using the Western shores as an inspiration for my color palette of blues, greens and beiges, I painted every wall a different color. And, since soaring walls and open spaces aren't always conducive to storage, I reclaimed a previous closed area under the stairs, added wood shelves and made it the perfect storage area.
I selected a variety of colors and fabrics that would serve to soften the hard edges of the loft. I worked with four main colors - sage, camel, mushroom and putty - for throws, pillows and accents. I then mixed things up with tactile textiles and bold, geometrical patterns.
Lighting in this high room was sparse - and what there was of it was 16 feet up (not very conducive to changing a light bulb!). My new lighting plan included dropped pendants in the main living space, a cable system over the kitchen, a modern glass fixture above the sideboard and accent lighting in the new cabinetry. I then installed two 6-foot multidirectional sconces in the dining room for some full-scale drama.
The furniture in the loft was mismatched and misplaced. I kept the couple's existing dining room furniture, but spiced the place up with new benches, accent tables and two funky, retro-style sofas.
I added further pizzazz with primitive accessories and modern art - all designed to help blend urban sleek with seaside casual. I finished things off by enlarging photographs taken by Brandon and arranging these in a vertical display on one wall.
This style-starved space was now fully transformed into the perfect spot for living, working and partying. Using organic elements, natural colors, dramatic cabinetry and modern lighting, I created a sleek and contemporary loft with a cool, "dig your toes in the sand" attitude. I'm sure Brandon and Cory's clients will find it extremely creative.
Orange County's future looks on the upswing
Sept. 25, 2005
By COURTNEY PERKES
The Orange County Register
Loft-buyer Joseph Lising picked out carpet, paint colors, cabinets - and his neighbors.
The 30-year-old recruited friends, plus his girlfriend and brother, to buy into the Santiago Street Lofts, which are under construction next door to the Santa Ana Depot.
He's among a new breed of urban pioneers who are attracted to areas some consider undesirable - such as near the thunder of railroad tracks or in industrial areas - in search of convenience and community.
Cities are also counting on the urban in-fill projects as jumpstarts for lagging downtowns or they are creating them from the ground up.
Lennar Corp. on Tuesday will seek permission from the Anaheim City Council for as many as 11 residential towers, as high as 33 stories, plus shops for the Platinum Triangle near Angel Stadium.
The plans are the first part of an upward empire in Anaheim for the builder, who last month submitted plans for a 450-foot tall residential tower near the Big A.
Urban lifestyles are in vogue with lower crime rates, less available land for housing and grittier notions of neighborhood.
They also bring greater density that could crowd schools, stress infrastructure and create more demand for public safety.
Anaheim's fire chief has called for two new fire stations to serve the Platinum Triangle, where now the nearest station is about a mile and a half away. The need was highlighted after a June arson fire at the under-construction Stadium Lofts.
Young professionals
The lofts and condos are most popular among young professionals without kids and older couples with grown children, said developer David DiRienzo, president of Urban West Strategies.
"Ten years ago, people were still fleeing the cities," said DiRienzo, a developer of the Santiago Street Lofts in Santa Ana. "You can look around Orange County and go into some of these downtowns, be it Brea, Placentia or Santa Ana, there's some cool old neighborhoods that are walkable. You can look at every urban corner as a different experience, unlike the suburbs."
Many older cities in north Orange County are cultivating a more urban identity where residents will live near transportation hubs, restaurants and shops.
Or in some cases, the new residents will create them. Lising plans to open a Catholic bookstore in his loft in addition to commuting to Irvine where he works in commercial real estate.
"The face of Orange County is transforming into more of a European type of living," Lising said. "It's nothing new - living in stacked housing where retail is on the bottom is a blast from the past."
The latest trend of live-work lofts, under way in Santa Ana, Stanton and Orange, can bring more commerce, sales tax revenue and prestige.
Fans of designer jeans by Jade Howe can snag a pair at Nordstrom or his downtown Santa Ana loft in the Artists Village.
For those who don't work at home, other projects tout proximity to public transportation:
In Buena Park, the Olson Co. will build 192 townhomes along Artesia Boulevard across from the future site of a Metrolink station.
In Fullerton, Olson is also building 120 townhomes and lofts just south of the railroad tracks.
City officials in Placentia have approved 54 homes on vacant land by the train tracks in Old Town.
Manuel Pineda, owner of El Cantarito restaurant, welcomes more foot traffic into Placentia's sleepy downtown.
"This is a good idea to bring more people here," Pineda said,-train line, saying some of his customers jump when it roars by.
"I don't hear the train, probably because my mind is here," he said. "But it's a lot of noise."
Khalil Darwish, owner of Solo 98, a convenience store on the main drag, said the area needs an economic lift that condos could bring.
"Here in this area, it's very low-income," said Darwish, who sells diapers, milk and chips. "Someone who buys a house is employed."
Impact on services
In Santa Ana, where the first phase of Artist Village lofts were built in 2003, residents want to see more commerce and nightlife.
"I wish I could walk more places," said Arlo Eisenberg, a 32-year-old artist who moved to Santa Ana's downtown lofts a year ago from Venice. "There's not that many places here yet. If you want to go out to lunch, you're basically going to the same couple places."
Latino merchants have feared gentrification would push them out. So far that hasn't happened, though a Starbucks opened in the heart of Santa Ana's Fourth Street where vendors sell spiced fruits and churros from push carts.
In fact, it's been businesses catering to the loft dwellers, like an upscale clothing boutique, that have closed down.
But while business results may be mixed, the developments could strain public services.
Gordon Itow, senior director of facilities planning for Anaheim City School District, has been meeting with Lennar officials to guage the impact on the district's 23 elementary schools, which run year round and at capacity.
"The challenge we have is there hasn't been any track record of the impact of a development of this nature," Itow said. "It takes a while, sometimes several years, for the full impact to happen. We don't have any land in the are and that's what has us concerned."
James Vanderbilt-Linares, a school board member, said developer fees could benefit the district if enrollment doesn't increase dramatically.
"The perfect storm for this would be an instance if there was a tremendous number of young families moving in and we had to build a new school in the Platinum Triangle area," he said.
"Downtown San Diego had a renaissance and turned offices into lofts. They catered toward young professionals, which is what happened inititally. Then they started marrying each other and started famlies and because of the cost of housing decided to make the best they could of the circumstances. The San Diego district is trying to deal with educating kids in the downtown area when they weren't really expecting any."