By Jorge Casuso

July 17, 2024 -- The Architectural Review Board (ARB) on Monday unanimously recommended supporting the final design for the ambitious redevelopment of the iconic Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Downtown Santa Monica.

The latest design -- which has undergone radical changes since it was first unveiled in 2010 -- brings under the roof of a curved 130-foot-tall structure the disjointed buildings added to the 4.5 acre-site since the hotel was built a century ago.

Rendering of latest Miramar Hotel design by Pelli Clarke Pelli (Courtesy MSD Capital)

The 502,157-square-foot redevelopment features 312 rooms that are twice the size of the exiting 300 rooms, adds 60 luxury condominiums on the top floor, banquet facilities, retail space and 14,000 square feet of public garden terraces.

The project -- which covers the block north of Wilshire Boulevard and East of Ocean Avenue -- also includes an affordable apartment building across Second Street, where 60 percent of the 42 units will be two and three bedrooms.

"The redevelopment celebrates and embraces the hotel’s history while bringing forward a new contemporary design that reorients the site toward Ocean Avenue," said City Planning Director David Martin.

The ARB, Martin said, "commended the design team for its commitment to integrating historic preservation principles with high-caliber architecture and an outstanding landscape plan."

Moreton Bay Fig Tree

In a report to the ARB, planning staff noted that "the applicant team has continued to study and refine the project design, landscape plan, and preservation plan."

The result is a project that "meets the high standard of review set (in) the City’s design review process," staff said.

The design board's go-ahead comes after the City Council approved a development agreement in 2020 and the California Coastal Commission enthusiastically approved the project in 2022.

The project will now go to the Landmarks Commission, which will focus on the restoration of the 100-room, seven-story historic Palisades building and protection of the Landmark 150-year-old Moreton Bay Fig Tree, a centerpiece of the design.

The project is expected to give an $18 billion boost to Santa Monica's economy and pump an estimated $444 million into the City's general fund over the next 25 years.