CJM::LA

Hollister Village | Under Construction

: Spa and Clubhouse Construction

Construction on our Hollister Village project is well underway as we enter into fall. Located in Goleta, CA this mixed-use project will provide a retail shopping center as well as 266 apartments to the Goleta community. Courtney has worked on this project for almost seven years, bringing the project from conceptual design through construction documents and now construction observation. We are proud to provide this much-needed rental housing to a community in dire need of available units!

To view photos of the construction progress, click here.

ARCHITECTOURS 2015 | THE GOODLAND HOTEL

On Saturday, October 3 CJM::LA provided tours of our Goodland Hotel property as part of the AIASB ArchitecTours. This event is held annually as a celebration of local architecture within the Santa Barbara area. This year was one of the most successful tours to-date! Thank you to all of our friends, clients and supporters who came out for the tour. To view photos from the event, click here.

AIASB ARCHITECTOURS 2015 | FEATURING NEW WORK BY CJM::LA

CJM::LA’s recently opened Goodland Hotel property will be featured on this year’s AIASB ArchitecTours!

The Santa Barbara AIA’s annual ArchitecTours, a celebration of local architecture, will showcase nine homes and businesses including our recently opened Goodland Hotel property.

The theme of this year’s ArchitecTours is ‘Architecture with a Story’. Each of the nine projects features an intriguing personal or construction story that profile many of the design obstacles encountered during the building process. This event draws attention to the extraordinary architectural legacy in Santa Barbara and the value of well-designed architecture to its surrounding community. Equally, ArchitecTours highlights the expertise that AIA architects (and Landscape Architects!) possess including a thorough understanding and expertise in urban design, sustainability, accessibility, structural improvements, building materials, and historic renovation.

The tour will be held on Saturday October 3^rdfrom 10am – 4pm and will culminate with a festive party.

Early Bird Tickets are $65 for general public, $55 for AIA members and seniors, and $25 for students. Please note that early bird tickets are only available until September 13th. This year, five percent of the proceeds earned by the event will be donated to Habitat for Humanity for their next project in Santa Barbara County. Habitat has been a valued client of ours and we are proud to contribute to another opportunity for fundraising for this incredible organization.

Tickets can be purchased here.

This year CJM::LA is a site sponsor at The Goodland Hotel property, which we completed in 2014. This is a great opportunity to see our work in action, and receive a personal tour of the property with representatives of our firm as well as DMHA, our Architect partners for the property. We look forward to seeing you there!

DROUGHT RESISTANT: SUMMER ART SERIES FEATURING MEGAN MUELLER

[thud], dimensions variable, cast cement boulder and trampoline, 2015

CJM::LA presents the second show in our series DROUGHT RESISTANT, featuring recent works by Megan Mueller.
Curated by Patrick Melroy, the show runs July 1, 2015 through July 31, 2015.

Megan Mueller is known as a sculptor who assembles tactile full color/pattern drenched objects. She is a artist who is unafraid of any medium, moving between cast concrete and wood constructions at will. Her work doesn’t so much walk a tightrope as swing wildly on the slack rope of surprise and improvisation. She is just as likely to mine the language of the rural Virginian countryside of her birth as to harvest the feeling of cold urban landscapes. She is a sculptor with limitless humor and innovation.

Mueller received her MFA from UCSB, a BFA in Sculpture and Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth University and a BA in Political Science from George Washington University. She has shown recently at Long Beach Arts Exchange, Shangrila, The Glassbox Gallery, (e)merge Art Fair with Transformer Gallery, Some other time travel, California State University Channel Island, INTERWEB, curated by Ana Torok, Grand Art Haus, GLAMFA 2014, University of California Long Beach, Drift & Fixation, curated by Kai Tepper, Arts Fund Santa Barbara, Spectacular Subdivisions, curated by Jay Lizo, High Desert Test Sites and Monte Vista Projects, 2008

The three artists in DROUGHT RESISTANT, Cathy Ellis, Megan Mueller, and Jenalee Harmon, are contemporary experts within their individual disciplines and regularly show their work nationally. The series is curated by Patrick Melroy. The idea for DROUGHT RESISTANT came from a creative conversation between CJM::LA principal Courtney Miller and several artists within the community. The substance of the discussion surrounded the desperate need for more quality venues for contemporary art within the very rich cultural center of Santa Barbara. Miller engaged curator Patrick Melroy who in turn invited three artists who have persevered through the shortage of show space and continued to advance their artistic practice despite not having a lot of room to spread out. The title of the series was entirely the idea of artist Megan Mueller.

The opening will be on Thursday, July 2 at 5 pm in collaboration with the Downtown Organization’s 1st Thursday event.

CJM::LA is located in the heart of downtown Santa Barbara, visit our Contacts page for more info.

City of Santa Barbara | New Bike Corral

Helena Street Bike Corral | photo courtesy of SB BIKE

The City of Santa Barbara’s Public Work’s Department recently opened a second bike corral within the Funk Zone neighborhood. We could not be more excited to see further support of multi-modal transportation within our community, especially in an area of town that is home to so many bikes! This project was a partnership between the City of Santa Barbara Public Works Department, the Architecture Review Board, the Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition as well as local business and property owners.

This particular location provides space for 18 bicycles without the loss of any vehicular parking.

Big Betty Butia at Alameda Park

CJM::LA recently completed plans for the restoration of a small area of our local Alameda Park. The project included the relocation of an existing non-functioning well in order to bring it back into operation and provide another much-needed water source for the Santa Barbara community. As part of that restoration, our office worked closely with the City of Santa Barbara, the Historic Landmarks Commission, and the Parks and Recreation Commission to restore a small area of the park. A few existing non-specimen trees were removed and replaced with beautiful new palm trees. This park is a significant part of the open space network within our community, and historically has been home to hundreds of unique tree species. We worked with Seacrest Nursery to select and install a unique specimen known as Big Betty Butia. She is a Butia capitata, or Jelly Palm, and has a beautiful grey-green canopy. Photos below::

: Big Betty at Seacrest Nursery

: Big Betty planted at Alameda Park

DROUGHT RESISTANT: SUMMER ART SERIES FEATURING CATHY ELLIS

Shots From the Sky by Cathy Ellis, 2014

CJM::LA presents the first show in our series DROUGHT RESISTANT, featuring the works of Cathy Ellis.
Curated by Patrick Melroy, the show runs June 1, 2015 through June 30, 2015.

Cathy Ellis is known for her exceptionally competent compositions and dramatic color combinations. Her development of subject matter reveals a thoughtful mind at work in the sloppy sticky edges of memory and mistake. The work lures viewers into it, leaving room for them to fill in the back-story and to build the associations of meaning around the elegant and yet clumpy figures and landscapes. Her work makes big noises about quiet subtle reflections.

Cathy Ellis received her BFA from Sonoma State University and her MFA from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2014. She has exhibited nationally, including exhibitions at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Santa Barbara, the Minan Gallery in Los Angeles, Cal State Channel Islands in Camarillo, 186 Carpenter in Providence, RI, the Sonoma Valley Museum in Sonoma, SFMOMA Artist’s Gallery, Trillium Press and Southern Exposure in San Francisco. She is currently a Teaching Fellow at the College of Creative Studies, University of California at Santa Barbara, and the 2014 winner of the Howard Fenton Award for Painting.

The three artists in Drought Resistant, Cathy Ellis, Megan Mueller, and Jenalee Harmon, are contemporary experts within their individual disciplines and regularly show their work nationally. The series is curated by Patrick Melroy. The idea for DROUGHT RESISTANT came from a creative conversation between CJM::LA principal Courtney Miller and several artists within the community. The substance of the discussion surrounded the desperate need for more quality venues for contemporary art within the very rich cultural center of Santa Barbara. Miller engaged curator Patrick Melroy who in turn invited three artists who have persevered through the shortage of show space and continued to advance their artistic practice despite not having a lot of room to spread out. The title of the series was entirely the idea of artist Megan Mueller.

The opening will be on Thursday, June 4 at 5 pm in collaboration with the Downtown Organization’s 1st Thursday event.

CJM::LA is located in the heart of downtown Santa Barbara, visit our Contacts page for more info.

Kids Draw | Architectural Foundation

The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is hosting it’s annual Kids Draw event over the next few weeks in April. This fantastic event provides children with the opportunity to sketch buildings in our community, aided by local artists and architects. Each year a calendar is produced with their drawings which provide a refreshing perspective on the built environment in Santa Barbara. For more info, click here.

SANTA BARBARA | STATE OF THE CITY

The Chamber of the Santa Barbara Region will be hosting the annual State of the City Presentation this Friday, March 20, 2015. Join us in reviewing last year’s milestones as well as plans for 2015. The Mayor’s presentation is free and open to the public. For more info, click here.

Coastal Housing Coalition | Annual Conference

The Santa Barbara Coastal Housing Coalition is hosting it’s annual conference at the Carrillo Recreation Center on Friday, March 20, 2015. The theme for this year’s conference is “Housing Needs and Opportunities Revealed.”

The Coastal Housing Coalition is a non-profit dedicated to educating the public about the impacts of the lack of available housing that is within financial reach of our local workforce. To read more about this organization, click here.

9/11 Memorial: The Other Half

Saundra Marcel

Read full Article:
9/11 Memorial: The Other Half
May 23, 2013
Design Bureau

: Photos by Alan Ward; courtesy of PWP Landscape Architecture

There’s been a grand opening, and more than six million visitors have visited, but the 9/11 Memorial site in lower Manhattan is still very much a work in progress. Landscape architect Peter Walker, co-designer of the project, estimates that after 10 years on the job, his vision is only halfway realized. More acres of the plaza need to be built and that can’t happen until the underground museum and train station are finished, as well as the surrounding streets.

Despite being unfinished, the memorial is open, and people have been coming from all over the world to pay their respects. Crowds are hustled through the maze-like barriers of this construction site before reaching its heart: the solemn memorial of two meaningful voids in the ground. Eventually, though, the experience will be completely different.

The finished product will be a memorial plus an open public space. Eight carefully planned acres that will ultimately be a contemplative and restful place, transformed by a lush forest of more than 400 swamp white oak trees. It will be one of the most sustainable plazas ever constructed. This part of the project will conclude years from now, quietly and without as much pomp and fanfare. But for generations to come, this park will ultimately be an important and reverent part of the experience.