By Jorge Casuso

March 9, 2012 -- A building on Main Street that has long housed one of the oddest collections of futuristic artifacts in Southern California is scheduled to be officially certified as a Santa Monica landmark Monday night.

Upstaged by the Metropolis robot in the window and the Tesla coil and strange flying machines in its attic-like interior, the Renaissance/Mediterranean Revival brick commercial building located at 2701-2705 Main Street has its own unique merits, the Landmarks Commission decided on January 9.

The building, which houses the store called Jadis, wrote Commission Chair John Berley, "is increasingly rare, constructed by the important designer… anchors the block... and manifests the economic history of Main Street," having been built in the 1920s during a building boom.

"Historically, the property set the scale for the block and now serves as a visual and spatial connection to the past commercial streetscape that once spanned much of Main Street," Berley wrote.

The building was designed by Joseph F. Rhodes, a proficient regionally known designer responsible for apartment buildings, banks and theaters in the LA region, according to the report.

But it's what's inside the old curiosity shop opened by Parke Meek in 1976 that has drawn visitors to the building, although most have had to enjoy the props crammed inside by peering through the window, for the store is usually closed.

A self-taught engineer, Meek, who died in January, 2010 at 86, worked for Charles and Ray Eames for three decades and put in stints with Frank Lloyd Wright and Buckminster Fuller.

The store, which was frequented by Hollywood art directors with appointments to search for the rare, elusive prop, was to have closed nearly two years ago. But the store is still known to open during the weekends, according to neighbors.

If you could landmark the contents of a building, Jadis would be a shoo-in. And the Landmarks Commission was privy to that.

"Additionally," Berley wrote, "the existing Art Nouveau inspired storefront of the subject property is a later addition that has attained recognition as a familiar visual feature of the commercial streetscape along Main Street."