Artists Fight Studio to Save Their Retreat

The complex of rusting warehouses on the eastern edge of Santa Monica looks forsaken by time with its ramshackle walls and weather-beaten doors.

But behind the collection of hulking steel skeletons lies a tight-knit enclave of painters, photographers and other artisans who have turned the former factory site into an avant-garde niche that includes prominent contemporary art galleries.

Now, the denizens of “Drescherville”--named for the man who built the compound during World War II--are battling to save their bohemian retreat from the wrecking ball.

Santa Monica Studios is preparing to buy the 6 1/2-acre property it now shares with the artist colony and raze the buildings to make way for a “European town” production hub. The new complex will combine cobblestone streets and castle-like towers with fiber-optic offices, digital sounds stages, artist lofts, an elegant restaurant, commissary and fitness center.

Drescherville stalwarts--some of whom have been notified that they must leave--have flooded City Hall with letters urging officials to intervene, arguing that the art enclave should be declared a city landmark.

The artisans say their austere setting provides cheap work space that would be impossible to duplicate elsewhere.

“The studio will destroy an already vibrant community in place of a speculative real estate deal,” said artist Robert Marvick, one of about 40 Drescherville tenants who will be uprooted by the expansion plans.

Neighboring business owners, meanwhile, have ridiculed the studio’s plan for four-story buildings as being out of step with the low-slung landscape of the surrounding area, adding that a bustling new production center will create undue noise and jam the streets with traffic.

The outcry has prompted city officials to schedule a hearing on Jan. 30. The Santa Monica Planning Commission and the City Council are expected to consider the proposal later this year after an environmental review is completed.

The movie studio--whose subsidiaries produce films and have created special effects for projects such as last summer’s “Independence Day”--is rapidly growing and needs more space. In the last six months 17 employees have been hired, bringing the total work force to 80.

Under the proposal, the studio would double its size and occupy about a quarter of the new 385,000-square-foot complex, which also would feature small businesses such as a dry cleaners or travel agency.

“I sympathize with the [artists], but I’m not going to stop the growth of my company and an $85-million expansion because they are upset,” said Santa Monica Studios President Todd Hess, who was recently elected to the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School Board.

While the current clash pits the studio and the artists against one another, the city of Santa Monica unwittingly set the stage for the conflict.

In a move designed to bring high-paying jobs and businesses to Santa Monica, the City Council created a new “light manufacturing and studio district” last year along a mostly industrial stretch of Olympic Boulevard. The new zoning allows for the type of development that Santa Monica Studios has proposed.

But the zoning change that opened the door for one creative community may doom another.

“I see a little irony here,” said Mayor Pam O’Connor, who admits that she was unaware of the artist colony when the studio district was created. “When we lose these folks, we lose part of what enriches Santa Monica--the cultural pinnace, the vibrancy.”

Although two other council members said they were unaware of the colony when they approved the zoning change, it is doubtful that the decision would be reversed at this point. Council members have not seen the official studio proposal yet.

Before any buildings can be torn down, Santa Monica Studios must complete the purchase of the land from Pepperdine University. The school received the property as a gift from its original owner, John F. Drescher, and holds the land in a charitable trust.

The studio and Pepperdine have taken the initial steps to clear the art enclave. Pepperdine’s real estate arm, Wave Enterprises Inc., issued notices in October ordering six tenants to leave within 30 days.

Word of the notices spread through Drescherville like fire, igniting angry responses from artists who claimed that a Wave representative had assured them that they would not have to move for another three to five years.

“We had been told that we should have no worry about our leases,” said gallery owner Marc Foxx.

Dennis Torres, Wave vice president, said no such time frame was ever mentioned. Hess of Santa Monica Studios added that the Drescherville artists were notified about the expansion project last summer when signs announcing the plans were posted at property entrances.

Only one of the six tenants who received a 30-day notice has moved. No action has been taken against the others. Hess and Torres have met individually with artists to discuss the situation and have offered to give tenants 90 days to leave once they receive notices.

Drescher is among those who ultimately will move from the site. An engineer and local philanthropist, Drescher has lived and worked at the warehouse buildings for 50 years. He donated his property to Pepperdine four years ago, and receives an income from the trust.

“If they give me my notice, I’ll leave,” Drescher said. “But I don’t want to be hurried. I want to take my time.”

The buildings at the site initially were home to a ceramics factory, and later an auto repair company, machine shops and the Southern California Institute of Architecture. In recent years artists began to take over.

These days, the warehouse complex has earned a name in art circles for three galleries--known simply by the names Marc Foxx, Dan Bernier and ACME. Art critics say the galleries offer an alternative to the more established--and trendy--Bergamot Station a few blocks away and refer to the Drescherville site as “Baby Bergamot.”

“When curators come from back East or Europe, they stop at Baby Bergamot,” said Gary Kornblau, editor of Art issues. , a Los Angeles-based trade magazine. “The galleries are important in the contemporary art scene.”

Drescherville artists say the colony also serves another important--if less tangible--purpose by fostering an intimate setting that allows artists to thrive.

“I don’t want to sound ‘hippie-ish,’ but this place has a very good vibe about it,” said painter Bruce Cohen, who has toiled in his one-room art studio for 14 years. “Here, people speak the same language. My neighbors come in and give me criticism on my work. It’s a very healthy way to function. There’s great value in the rapport you have with other artists.”

Others simply describe a sense of family where fellow artists know one another’s birthdays and feed each other’s pets--a rare quality that they fear will be difficult to regain elsewhere.

“There’s something about this place that touches our soul,” said Stanley Felderman, a partner in an architecture firm that opened six months ago. “You come here and there’s a real sense of community. If we need something, we just walk across the way. That sense is going to be lost.”

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Studio Site

Santa Monica Studios’ $85-million expansion of its current Olympic Boulevard site would feature cobblestone streets and castle-like towers. The plan envisions a variety of entertainment companies in multistory buildings that combine production space with artist lofts.