The coastal Residences at Pacific City in Huntington beach takes four Gold Nugget awards at the PCBC’s 65th Annual Gold Nugget Awards for Multi-Family Community of the Year, Best Recreational Use Facility, Best Multi-Family Housing Community (30-60 du/acre) and Best Indoor/Outdoor Lifestyle for a Community (30-60 du/acre). Working with UDR, we crafted the Residences at Pacific City as an ultimate living option for people seeking an authentic beach community experience that embraces the character of Huntington Beach to its fullest extent.
Situated a few blocks south of the Huntington Beach Pier, the residences complete the triad of parcels making up Pacific City. The Residences sit adjacent to the Pacific City retail center and Pasea Hotel. The Residences are situated over two levels of underground parking and are organized in an array around the central park. The central park offers both private and public amenities including a 5,000 sf swimming pool, spas, cabanas, outdoor media, catering kitchen, fitness center and a variety of club spaces. Two acres of park space are designated as public domain, and provide open space adjacent to the retail and restaurant district, public art, an amphitheater, and passive recreation space.
Rewind one hundred years prior to its development and the site had a drastically different use. After many years of oil drilling and extraction, the project site remained undeveloped for decades. Several old well sites dotted the landscape – all requiring capping and venting for methane gas release. The coastal site is – naturally – very sandy soil with immediate exposure to the salty sea air. The site is also culturally significant to the local Native American groups requiring the utmost in respectful design foresight. UDR acquired the site from a failed developer who had already installed a loop road and utilities, so we inherited this as a basis to create a new design.
With MVE + Partners working on the radial building layout to conform to the pre-existing infrastructure, our design team began establishing the landscape structure and hierarchy. Once we had established the notion of a curved amenity building – to divide the public and private amenity zones – the design team had an epiphany! Pieter Berger – and avid surfer and lead designer at MVE – stated “what if that curved building was a wave?” The idea had been born! Pieter worked feverishly through the weekend to create the idea in Sketchup. The abstraction of an ocean wave was the concept for the central park space – with the amenity building taking the literal forms. The park assumed three components to the wave form. The Swell – present in the 2-acre public park – is embodied by rolling waves of grasses, thematic tile installations, and sweeping walkways. The Wave – the amenity building – reinforces the forms of the curling and arching ocean waters. The Crash – is represented in the complex curves of the pool area – and is an abstraction of how a wave crashes on the beach.
Six large courtyards are within the building confines, and take their design concept as a sequence of the passing day. We wanted to ensure each of the six courtyards was unique, memorable, and owned a character that residents could identify. The initial court invokes peaceful morning activities with places for yoga and coffee, two courts offer mid-day collaboration spaces, and each sequential court progresses through the day before culminating at a courtyard geared toward evening entertainment and outdoor movies in the sand. We linked all the courtyards by a natural wood boardwalk promenade, which provides the ease of circulation through the community, as well as to the park, adjacent retail center – and, of course – the beach.
Six large courtyards are within the building confines, and take their design concept as a sequence of the passing day. We wanted to ensure each of the six courtyards was unique, memorable, and owned a character that residents could identify. We linked all the courtyards by a natural wood boardwalk promenade, which provides the ease of circulation through the community, as well as to the park, adjacent retail center – and, of course – the beach.
The initial court invokes peaceful morning activities with places for yoga and coffee, two courts offer mid-day collaboration spaces, and each sequential court progresses through the day before culminating at a courtyard geared toward evening entertainment and outdoor movies in the sand.
Many of the materials we selected hark back to the industrial past of the area, and are derived from steel, concrete and wood. The public park features multiple art installments commissioned to celebrate the native cultural influences, the nearby ocean life, and even a clever installment to masquerade the presence of the ubiquitous methane vents. As a redeveloped brownfield site, the vents were unavoidable, so special efforts were needed to treat the capped wells in a way that was not only functional but also discreet and artful. Our collaboration with environmental graphic designers RSM Design and tile artist Frank Bauer on multiple public art pieces was very special.
