Directly south of the I-10 Freeway in Santa Monica, new offices are being pitched for a property that was once home to the company that stages the Grammy's, according to a pending presentation to the City's Planning Commission.

BKNM, LLC, applicant behind the project at 3402 W. Pico Boulevard and 2337 Centinela Avenue, is seeking approvals to redevelop surface parking with a new two-story, 47,780-square-foot office building above subterranean parking for 242 vehicles. An existing three-story, 44,800-square-foot structure - formerly the headquarters of The Recording Academy - would be retained on the western half of the property.

Centinela Avenue viewShubinDonaldson

ShubinDonaldson is designing the proposed office complex, dubbed Pico Green, which would sit directly south of the I-10 Freeway and place a large, landscaped courtyard at the center of the property. The new building would be of hybrid mass timber construction, according to plans.

"The two-story office building and rectilinear form is appropriate to the existing three-story office building that will remain on the site," reads a design description in a staff report. "The new roof line generally aligns with the height of the freeway overpass, with the two-story massing sitting below the freeway. The frontage of the building at the corner of Pico Boulevard and Centinela Avenue is setback, and the freeway overpass columns and the Caltrans easement’s perimeter walls obscure the longest street elevation of the building. The most visible street facing façade along Centinela Avenue features a second-floor level of glazing within a muted pattern of frames and setback from the adjacent residential properties. The scale and horizontal massing oriented alongside the overpass provides an appropriate transition the central courtyard and to the neighborhood. Collectively, the two buildings (proposed and existing) will maintain a low-scale commercial office presence."

3402 Pico Boulevard / 2337 Centinela AvenueGoogle Maps

The staff report recommends approval of the proposed project.

Multiple schemes for the property at Pico and Santa Monica have been proposed in the past 12 years, starting in 2011 when Trammell Crow Company acquired the site to propose redevelopment with 260 apartments and retail space. The site would later fall under the ownership of Hudson Pacific Properties, which later sold the property in 2017 to facilitate its purchase of what is now Sunset Las Palmas Studios in Hollywood. At that time, it was reported that the lot came under the ownership of Cypress Creek Renewables, a company which builds and operates solar facilities.

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