Working Artists Ventura
The Working Artists Ventura (WAV) project will be a $57 million, state-of-the-art community designed for artists and creative businesses. Located in the cultural district of downtown Ventura, California, the WAV will offer affordable living and working space for over a hundred artists of every kind; painters, sculptors, dancers, poets, musicians, filmmakers and more.
The artists will bring to life a theater/gallery with performances, art openings and neighborhood gatherings. Arts-friendly small businesses including coffee houses, galleries, cafes, wine bars and jazz clubs will draw foot traffic and contribute to the vitality of the community.
With the community involved in every phase of development, the WAV project is being created for diverse, mixed-income families and individuals. Supportive housing services, coordinated by Ventura's own Project Understanding, will be provided to those at the lowest end of the income scale while market-rate condominiums with ocean views serve higher-income households.
The first of its kind, the WAV project represents the vanguard of community development. The entire WAV community will be designed and built to the highest standards of green building technology (LEED certified), including recycled building materials, car sharing, water and energy conservation, and renewable power from the sun.
The City of Ventura is working with PLACE (Projects Linking Art, Community & Environment, www.placeonline.us ), a nonprofit organization based in Minnesota. PLACE has developed this live/work project to provide permanently affordable housing for the Ventura community's growing population of artists.
PLACE is working with the renowned architecture firms of CardeTen (www.cardeten.com) and Santos Prescott & Associates (www.santosprescott.com) to design this innovative project, with the active participation of the wider community and the local Conceptual Oversight Group, currently comprised of the following:
Ed Moses County of Ventura
Paul Lindhard Artist with Art City
Ray DiGiulio Former Mayor
Karen Flock Affordable Housing
Mike Merewether Insurance Executive
Rick Pearson Project Understanding
Nick Deitch Architect
Doug Halter Chamber of Commerce
Betsy Chess San Buenaventura Foundation
Sid White City of Ventura
Elena Brokaw City of Ventura
Kerry Adams Hapner City of Ventura
Cheryl Heitmann Community Colleges
Karyl Lynn Burns Rubicon Theater
Affordable Housing & Supportive Housing
The WAV project will provide sixty-nine new units of affordable housing, all serving low income families and individuals from across the region. Because artists need high ceilings, plentiful light and open space, they and their families find it particularly difficult to live and work in traditional affordable housing. That is why WAV will provide fifty-four affordable units especially designed and funded for the needs of artists with families.
Fifteen of the units will be designed to provide permanent supportive housing, intended to house recently homeless families and individuals from across Ventura County. Rents will adjust on a sliding scale, creating opportunities for households of any income.
Project Understanding (www.projectunderstanding.org) , a Ventura-based nonprofit, will coordinate crucial services necessary to help these households break the cycle of severe poverty and homelessness. Supportive Housing is a national movement proving to be extremely effective. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that almost 84% of homeless households were still housed after one year in supportive housing, and emergency room visits were dramatically reduced, thus saving health care costs.
A unique collaboration is also being developed with Casa Pacifica (www.casapacifica.org) of Camarillo to provide space and support for eighteen-year-olds matriculating from the foster-care and Casa Pacifica systems.
Providing construction management and owner's representation on the WAV project is S. L. Leonard and Associates (www.slleonard.com), while PCL Construction (www.pcl.com) will be the General Contractor on this project. Both PCL and S. L. Leonard are national companies with extensive experience on projects in the Southern California region and were chosen for their ability to work with PLACE and the City of Ventura in ways that are innovative and that will result in an environmentally-friendly structure.
Working Artists Ventura Architectural Renderings
The renderings below represent the latest design. We met the challenge of creating a structure that will be simultaneously durable, green and affordable by using new building materials and cutting-edge architectural practices. Kalwall, one example of an innovative building material that will be used, will create translucent walls that give artists more natural light, and will allow light to escape the building at night, creating a subtle glowing effect like a Chinese lantern.
Photorealistic Artist rendering view from the corner of Ventura Avenue and Thompson Blvd.
Street Level Side View Ventura Avenue Elevation
View from Garden Street
Cutaway of Condo
The building design received final approval from the City of Ventura Planning Commission in February 2007. Below is a map showing the location, at the corners of Thompson Blvd. and Ventura Ave. of the future building site. This location will serve as the linkage between historic Downtown and a revitalized Westside. The anticipated date for groundbreaking is November 2007.
Working Artists Ventura News and Events
The WAV project must secure a total of $1.5 million in pledges and donations by November 2007. We have already identified $55 million in funds necessary for WAV and we need only this final sum to make the project a reality. There are many naming opportunities available to individuals and corporations; the following is a partial list:
WAV Naming Opportunities
Opportunity Gift
The WAV Community $2,000,000
The Theater Gallery $750,000
End Homelessness $500,000
Supportive Housing Community $250,000
Commercial Block Building $250,000
Supportive Housing - Individual Unit Wing $150,000
Supportive Housing - Family Unit Wing $150,000
Plaza Courtyard $150,000
Garden Courtyard $100,000
Artist Courtyard $75,000
Northern Block $75,000
Central Block Building $75,000
Community Services Bldg $75,000
Western Block Building $75,000
Theater Rooftop Deck $50,000
Central Rooftop Deck $50,000
Western Rooftop Deck $50,000
Zaguan $40,000
Artist's Hot Room $40,000
Garden Deck $40,000
Paseo $30,000
Bridges (5 total) $25,000
Electric Car $20,000 (each)
Public Art Pieces (multiple) $15,000 (each)
Trees (multiple) $10,000 (each)
Theater Seats $2,500 (each)
Tiles/Founders' Wall $1,000 - $15,000
For more information regarding this project call Deborah Hazen, WAV Project Coordinator, (805) 658-4794, or visit www.placeventura.org.
Cultural District Working Artists Ventura Cultural Community Cultural Funding
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