Santa Monica Place is a three-level, open-air shopping and dining center at the southern end of Third Street Promenade, just a few blocks from the beach and Santa Monica Pier. Its present form dates to a major 2010 redevelopment that removed the roof and opened the complex to the surrounding street grid, creating stronger pedestrian connections between the Promenade, Civic Center and waterfront.

Santa Monica Place originally opened in 1980 as a three-story enclosed shopping mall designed by a young Frank Gehry and anchored by J.W. Robinson’s and The Broadway. It was built as part of an effort to revive a struggling downtown and initially succeeded in drawing shoppers back to the area, although its inward-facing suburban-mall design increasingly felt disconnected from the lively Third Street Promenade that emerged beside it. The mall closed for reconstruction in January 2008, and owner Macerich spent about $265 million stripping much of the building back to its structural frame and transforming it into an open-air center designed by The Jerde Partnership. Santa Monica Place reopened on August 6, 2010, with Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom as new anchors and a rooftop dining deck overlooking the ocean.

Santa Monica Place

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