Project Feature: 1640 14th Street, Santa Monica
A Creative Hub Rooted in California’s Urban Landscape
In the heart of Santa Monica, 1640 14th Street transforms a former industrial lot into a richly layered, amenity-filled creative campus, where exterior patio space is as desirable and valuable as what’s inside. Designed to elevate both everyday work life and the public realm, the landscape and architecture at this Redcar Properties development work together to create a harmonious environment that emphasizes connection, art, and a strong sense of place.
Urban Linkage Through Landscape
In addition to offering office and retail, this campus serves as a pedestrian-focused link in a broader civic vision for Santa Monica. With its direct connection to the soon-to-be-renovated Memorial Park, the site establishes a dynamic urban passageway that weaves into a series of mid-block paseos leading toward the ocean.
The design intent was to create an urban experience that integrates with the neighborhood while offering a unique and engaging environment for tenants and passersby. McCullough’s landscape provides a natural foundation for the architecture and interlaces into the fabric of the space at every level – from a welcoming ground-level paseo and social staircase to a series of rooftop gathering spaces with fireplaces and garden views.
The development aligns with Santa Monica’s urban planning goals by enhancing pedestrian infrastructure, fostering inclusivity, and improving connectivity in an area once divided by industrial infrastructure and freeways.
The Planting Palette: A Contemporary Garden for an Urban Environment
The first layer of landscape unfolds as you enter the space through the paseo. The layered palette honors the contemporary urban landscape of Los Angeles that is made up of a blend of native and naturalized species, presenting a hybrid of wild meadows and contrived sculptural accents that rise up out of the natural foundation. Most notably in the space is a mature multi-trunked Ficus petiolaris that sits majestically in the heart of the paseo, bringing a grander scale to the space that converses with the surrounding built environment.
In dialogue with the paseo are the Social Stairs that ascend toward the second-floor patio entrance, featuring a gallery of one-of-a-kind sculptures that emerge out of the landscape. Cast-in-place concrete seating areas are interwoven with ribbons of native grasses and bold specimen cacti that interact seamlessly with the marble and stone of the sculpted art.
Crowning the experience is a rooftop garden that provides a serene retreat above the urban bustle. A clerestory window captures reflections of the city in the distance, while in the foreground, a windswept meadow of Eriogonium fasciculatum, Bouteloua gracilis, and Verbenas among a variety of other natives, sway gently in the breeze. The soft rustle of the meadow is a calming soundtrack for tenants as they gather, reflect, or simply enjoy the indoor-outdoor lifestyle afforded by Santa Monica’s temperate climate.
A Collaborative Partnership
Redcar Properties is a civic-minded developer known for transforming underperforming commercial properties in high-growth urban neighborhoods into vibrant, community-focused spaces. With a commitment to thoughtful redevelopment and placemaking, Redcar’s projects across Los Angeles help weave together larger urban narratives, with a focus on walkability, inclusivity, and long-term community benefit.
Over the past several years, McCullough has partnered with the Redcar team on multiple efforts that align with these goals. In addition to 1640 14th Street, collaborations include the redevelopment of adjacent properties in Santa Monica, as well as projects in the Silver Lake and Culver City neighborhoods. This latest effort is a true reflection of that shared vision, brought to life through the collective expertise of a talented team including HGA, Del Amo Construction, Nous Engineering, AMA Consulting Services, KPFF, and Luminesce Design.
Congratulations to the entire team on a successful project, including the team at McCullough; David McCullough, Principal Landscape Architect; Zeek Magallanes, Studio Team Leader; and Kira Becker, Associate/Project Manager.
We are proud to contribute to a project where such thoughtful innovation and care will help influence and shape both everyday experience and the broader urban fabric. Inspiring work, such as 1640 14th Street, reminds us of the power intentional design has to connect people and place.
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