March 16, 2025 Breaking News, Latest News, and Videos

A New Life For The Downtown Santa Monica Post Office:

There’s no question that the former downtown post office at 1248 Fifth Street (at Arizona) should be saved and preserved.

We’re losing important character and style by the minute in our city every time useful older buildings are torn down and replaced with something new that reflects only the present and the desire of developers to claim more turf in our lovely seaside community.

But it’s never easy making the kind of decisions that will bring new and sustainable life to older buildings.

While it’s barely been closed a week at the time of this writing, I can already hear whispers in the air that resonate with terms like “retail” and “cafes.”

Let me offer that the building, as a U.S. Post Office, spent many years serving all the people of our city.

I’ve been there many times myself to send parcels that I didn’t want to surrender to FedEx and their pricey rates.

So could the building on Arizona and Fifth Street once again be a place filled with purpose for all and perhaps even providing needed services?

In that hope I would like to offer some modest proposals for utilizing the building for something good for all the citizens of our city.

Perhaps some or even all of these are a bit starry-eyed, but none of them involve a Target store or luxury condos.

A Children’s Museum

If you’ve ever had the good fortune to spend a day in San Francisco’s magnificent Exploratorium, you know that the creativity and level of engagement there is a proud achievement for that city. They know it, too.

From the Exploratorium website: “For more than forty years, we’ve built creative, thought-provoking exhibits, tools, programs, and experiences that ignite curiosity, encourage exploration, and lead to profound learning.”

Could Santa Monica have a similar facility?

In a partnership with other children’s museums in Southern California, could Santa Monica have a facility that emphasized our ocean-proximate location and also “ignited curiosity” and “lead to profound learning”?

Such efforts require keen planning and continuing support. But, for kids, I think we could swing it.

Center For Climate Change Learning

By having a facility dedicated to the single most compelling challenge facing our planet, Santa Monica would lead by doing and provide a platform where there was never any looking away from a problem that is already way too far ahead of us.

This center would be an all-ages education facility, where Dad and Mom might catch-up on a lot of what their kids already know is killing us.

The former post office building might also become a low-cost home to organizations working on the problem, creating a headquarters for a battle we know we must begin to fight.

Santa Monica’s taking the lead by building just such a center would become a source of pride in our community.

The Green Building

This would be a more all-encompassing version of the previous pitch. First off, we’d convert the building’s energy needs to renewable and green sources so that the building itself became a functioning example of what can be done.

Then you’d have interactive exhibits that proved once and for all that a future propped-up on oil, coal and ‘fracked’ natural gas is, in fact, not a “future” at all.

Once a week, the potentially recyclable waste of just one elementary school would be transported to the building and students could be involved in the conversion of that material to new purposes.

A parent once told me that he wished there was a way to fully explain to his kids where their ‘poop’ goes once it’s flushed down a toilet.

That might not sound a big Saturday outing to you, but having displays that demystified even that basic reality of life might help the leaders of tomorrow to make fewer mistakes than we’re making now.

Music Learning Center

Music programs in schools have taken a crippling hit the past few years, and I would never propose that a dime that might be spent saving them be redirected to something else.

But imagine a full-time facility dedicated to the appreciation and understanding of music of all kinds around the world, including regular student and professional concerts and experience-type exhibits that might inspire the very young to create and play music.

Older citizens might utilize a lending library of opera and classical CDs.

The technology and delivery of music has been a source of fascination for the young but the roots and history of music are becoming increasingly like something on a far-off island.

A full-time music facility looking to build a bridge between the past and present seems like a reasonable use for a building we want to save, and it occurs to me that we have lots of world-class musicians in LA who would be delighted to swing on by and donate an afternoon.

in Opinion
<>Related Posts

Santa Monica Civic Auditorium: The Cultural Icon Santa Monica Needs

March 9, 2025

March 9, 2025

Santa Monica is a city of innovation, creativity, and world-class attractions, yet it lacks a central cultural destination that reflects...

SM.a.r.t Column: The Perils of Passing the Buck: How Self-Certification Threatens Public Safety in Building Design and Construction

March 2, 2025

March 2, 2025

In the bustling city of Santa Monica, California, a quiet revolution is underway in the world of building design and...

SM.a.r.t Column: Bring Back The Music

February 16, 2025

February 16, 2025

On January 28th, 2025, the City Council did a wise thing and agreed to continue the process, for 30 days,...

SM.a.r.t Column: The Water Crisis Behind LA’s Fire Disaster: A Legacy of Outdated Infrastructure

February 9, 2025

February 9, 2025

A firefighter filling a trash can with pool water during the devastating 2025 Los Angeles fires tells a story more...

SM.a.r.t Column: California’s Fire Safety Evolution: Meeting Modern Wildfire Challenges

February 2, 2025

February 2, 2025

The devastating fires that struck Los Angeles in January 2025 echo a pattern of increasingly destructive wildfires reshaping California’s approach...

SM.a.r.t Column: Peril, Prevention, and the Path Forward

January 26, 2025

January 26, 2025

The recent Palisades and Altadena fires brought Los Angeles’ inherent contradictions into sharp focus as residents fled their homes in...

SM.a.r.t Column: A New Path Ahead

January 19, 2025

January 19, 2025

The recent Palisades Fire is profoundly impacting the people of Los Angeles, displacing families, destroying property, and creating an enduring...

SM.a.r.t. Column: Adaptive Liveability

January 2, 2025

January 2, 2025

You know, sometimes you walk by a building and think, that place has some stories to tell. What if those...

SM.a.r.t Column: Happy Holidays

December 22, 2024

December 22, 2024

S.M.a.r.t. (Santa Monica Architects for a Responsible Tomorrow) is wishing you a wonderful holiday season. We hope you are surrounded...

SM.a.r.t. Column: Preserving Santa Monica

December 15, 2024

December 15, 2024

Since Giving Tuesday I’m sure you have been bombarded with appeals from countless organizations, local, national, or even international that...

SM.a.r.t Column: Climbing The Vertical Learning Curve

December 8, 2024

December 8, 2024

The city is facing a financial crisis, the roots of which stretch back decades but have been made worse by...

SM.a.r.t Column: It’s Time To Inspect Balconies

November 24, 2024

November 24, 2024

About nine years ago, a fifth-floor balcony in a Berkeley apartment building collapsed, tragically killing several students gathered on it...

S.M.a.r.t Column: Your City is Broke

November 18, 2024

November 18, 2024

On December 10, the new City council will be seated fresh from their dominant win in the recent elections. There...

SM.a.r.t Column: Moving Ahead to the Future

November 10, 2024

November 10, 2024

As we write this, the election results are still trickling in. We’ll leave the deep analysis to others, but the...

Opinion: Fact Check: Why Vote Yes on Measure QS

November 1, 2024

November 1, 2024

Despite living in a famously progressive region, Santa Monicans are not immune from the same political misinformation and disinformation that...