Plan under way to expand Santa Ana's Artists Village

Abstract

a digital arts training center and a 70-unit mixed residential-retail complex--are on he drawing boards to expand the Artists Village in downtown Santa Ana.

Two new projects--a digital arts training center and a 70-unit mixed residential-retail complex--are on he drawing boards to expand the Artists Village in downtown Santa Ana.

The digital arts training center is being proposed by a consortium of local schools and colleges led by the University of California, Irvine in partnership with Venice, Cal.-based multimedia company Digital Domain and the city of Santa Ana. The project, which city officials estimate would cost between $5 million and $10 million, calls for the conversion of the 40,000-square-foot YMCA building at Civic Center Drive and Sycamore Street into a multimedia center offering training programs and internships for computer graphics and animation students.

Backers of the center, dubbed the Idea Institute for Digital Experimentation in the Arts, say it would draw students from and provide talent o the nearby Artists Village, and help prepare local students to enter he booming multimedia and entertainment industries.

"The best way to make the Artists Village part of the community is to link it with educational opportunities," said Susan Helper, Santa Ana's downtown project manager.

Already, the city is leasing out a gallery in the historic Santora building at Second Street and Broadway to 25 California State University Fullerton graduate students. And the city is also in the process of converting the Grand Central building across the street to galleries and workspace for CSUF students.

Several other studios, galleries, shops and cafes are planned for the Artists Village; also, the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art has a temporary facility at the northwest corner of Broadway and Second Street while it is preparing its permanent site a block to the east.

The proposed digital arts center's chief champion is the Fine Arts School at UCI. Other entities to express interest in the project include: Santa Ana College (formerly Rancho Santiago College); the Santa Ana Unified School District, which, according to Helper, is looking to run animation classes at the center; and the city of Santa Ana. Digital Domain, a producer of visual effects for the film and high-end commercial industries, has also expressed. according to company spokeswoman Jill Smolland.

But the center does face a couple of key obstacles. Because it's still in the early idea stages, none of the partners has begun to raise any funds for the project, according to Roy Dormaier, Assistant Executive Vice Chancellor of Resources at UCI.

Also, the 80-year-old YMCA building, which is a historical landmark, needs to be brought up to current earthquake codes, a task which Dormaier said could prove too costly. A report from city-hired earthquake consultants is due next month.

"If we find that it is not financially feasible to retrofit the building, we will look at several other vacant buildings that are in the vicinity," Dormaier said. "We still have a lot of people excited about the possibility of a digital arts center near the Artists Village. But those buildings are all smaller, so that means the scope of the project would also have to be reduced."

The 70-acre mixed-use artists complex, which would cover four acres, is the brainchild of two local developers with ties to the arts community: Arthur Strock, an architect and retail developer, and Harriett Harris, a residential developer. Both have served on the board of the Bowers Museum and Strock serves on Mayor Miguel Pulido's Arts District Task Force.

The $8 million to $10 million project would consist of 70 units with housing on the upper floors and a variety of studios, galleries, shops and cafes on the bottom floor. The site, currently owned by the Weyerhaeuser Mortgage Corp., is bounded by Main, Third, Spurgeon and First streets. If built, it would be an eastern extension of the current Artists Village, which runs along Second and Third streets on the opposite side of Main Street.

"We think it's a neat deal," Strock said. "It would bring a new kind of component to Santa Ana's urban mix: the live-work atmosphere that you see in other cities like San Francisco or Greenwich Village."

The new complex would have the living space built into it, Strock said. The Santora building also contains living space, but that has been created on an ad-hoc basis. Strock said he and Harris have the funds to purchase the land from Weyerhaeuser but would need financing for the construction.

The city has approved the conceptual design for the project. If financing can be secured, Strock said, he anticipates few regulatory obstacles and a start on construction later this year, with the first phase being completed as early as next summer.