2 Local Beauties Get Landmark Protection

Two storefronts that stand apart from the rest with their "whiplash"-like curvy, molding on Main Street were designated this week city landmarks, affording them protection from future alteration and demolition.

The designation applies to four adjoining storefronts, 2701-2705 Main St., although only two are in the rare art nouveau style.

They're "unique and beautifully crafted,” Ruthann Lehrer, a member of Santa Monica's Landmarks Commission, said in approving the designation Monday night.

The storefronts in Santa Monica were built in 1922 and redesigned in the art nouveau style in the 1980s with the aysemmetrical embellishments by U.S. Marine veteran and master carpenter Parke Meek.

The redesign came five years after Meek and partner Susan Lieberman opened two venerable businesses there: she a wedding gown boutique, Paris 1900 at 2703 Main St., and he a wildly eclectic movie prop house, Jadis.

Today, city officials recognize the shops as fixtures of the business district's streetscape. Landowner Bill Lambert, whose father-in-law purchased the properties in 1946, still speaks in awe of Meek's creativity and of the building's beauty.

Because he and any future landowners are required by the city to ensure that the buildings don't fall into disrepair, Lambert said, the designation "will benefit the citizens of Santa Monica."

The Main Street storefront was originally designed by Joseph F. Rhodes, a Southern California designer who worked with the owner, Pasadena resident George Beidler.

On Nov. 4, 1922, while Main Street underwent a renaissance, Beidler applied for a permit to construct the four-room, one-story commercial building valued at $12,000.

"The property, constructed in the 1920s, is an example of the decentralization of commerce westward," city planners wrote in a memo to the Landmarks Commission. "As the Ocean Park area became a booming residential area, stores were needed to support the basic functions of the residents."

In his applicaton, Beidler described the front façade materials as brick and terra cotta, the building had a composition roof, tile and wood cornices, and concrete floors, according to historic resources consultant PCR Services Corp.

Such architectural styling is now called Renaissance revival. Most other examples of the styling in Santa Monica—brick parapets, white glazed brick trim, tall windows and modest architectural ornamentation—have been substantially altered.

Two of Bielder's storefronts remain in the Renaissance revival style; two are in the art nouveau. Meek performed the redesign in 1981 after 30 years working with American modernist Charles Eames, creator of the Eames chair. In 2010, Meek died at age 86 from complications of old age, the Los Angeles Times reported.