The owners of Santa Barbara’s Five Points Shopping Center found out the hard way that art and corporate branding — at least to the Architectural Board of Review — are two very different things.
Frustrated by ABR members’ comments at last week’s meeting, a Regency Centers Corp. vice president took his paintbrushes and went home.
It was a surprising twist, even by Architectural Board of Review standards.
“Guys, we’re not going to come back and present again,” said Patrick Conway, vice president and regional officer for Regency, which owns the sprawling shopping center at 3943 State St.
“If after five meetings we’re not even close, it’s OK. We’re done. I will just be candid with you guys. We can’t do this anymore.”
Conway packed up and walked out in exasperation after the ABR members blasted the company’s murals and thematic motif project for Five Points.
Regency had partnered with Hollis Brand Culture, a San Diego brand and identity development company, to come up with the concept. One of the ABR appointees called it “clip art.”
The company had proposed large and small murals, banners, new paint and decorative motifs throughout the 144,543-square-foot shopping center, with a focus on the Big 5 Sporting Goods corner. The development team wanted to create “a sense of arrival” at the northwest entrance to the complex.
The ABR supported some of the art components, but could not swallow what the designer called “whimsical” elements of the plan.
Don Hollis, founder and principal of Hollis Brand Culture, had presented a plan that included a fish with a top hat and a pelican riding a bicycle, along with whales, seagulls and other birds.
The development team only presented the city with hard-copy drawings of the plan and nothing in electronic form. Neither Regency nor Hollis Brand Culture responded to several Noozhawk requests for digital renderings.
“They are meant to be a little playful,” Hollis explained to the ABR. “It creates a moment that brightens your day, gives you a moment to pause, makes you think.”
He said the art was special.
“The artwork is all custom and one of kind,” he added. “It’s all original art that is created for this site.”
But members of the ABR were confused.
“How does a fish with a top hat or a pelican riding a bike say ‘Santa Barbara’ to you?” ABR member Courtney Jane Miller asked.
Hollis did his best to offer an explanation.
“It’s a very consumer-based market,” he replied. “This is a shopping center and sporting good store and a whole lot of other utilitarian, everyday kind of businesses. It is meant to be this uplifting kind of moment that greets you. Those are all animals and creatures that are familiar.
“People go whale watching, and the seagulls are certainly an everyday part of life around here. Seeing them in unexpected ways and playful twists is kind of what the art concept is meant to do.”
Hollis said the artwork is meant to take people “to another place.”
Jane Miller disagreed.
“Please, I hope you don’t think I am attacking anything here,” she said. “I think they look like clip art. I have seen all those patterns before. I have seen all of it before.
“It does not seem unique and it doesn’t feel Santa Barbara to me.”
Regency had been to two ABR meetings and two visual art in public places meetings. Conway said he was under the impression that the artwork was on the right track.
“We thought we were going to try to do a good thing,” he said during the meeting. “We’re investing a ton of money to make it work. We’ve had some positive feedback from a variety of meetings, and now we are oh-fer. So I think we are just done.”
Board member Stephanie Poole, surprised by his withdrawal, asked “so it’s all or nothing?”
Conway noted the board was accepting only of some changes to the paint and a few graphic pieces, but that the whimsical artwork was what everything else was centered around.
Jane Miller pointed out the other components of the plan, including the Youth Interactive mural proposed for one of the shopping center’s walls, was a good idea.
“No, I can’t do it, unless I can have a comprehensive package,” Conway retorted. “We have been through multiple meetings. That’s why I thought we were at arts advisory twice and got their vote approval as submitted.
“I thought that’s what the arts advisory was supposed to do, and we come here and it’s nothing.”
The ABR voted 5-2 against the whimsical murals, but gave Regency the option to return with a new mural plan, or a faster track toward approval without them.
Jane Miller, Poole and fellow ABR members Kirk Gradin, Scott Hopkins and Howard Wittausch voted against the project, with Thiep Cung and Amy Fitzgerald Tripp dissenting.
After the vote, Conway turned around and walked away without acknowledging the board. He returned seconds later to pick up some papers. When he did, Hopkins attempted to talk to him, but was given the cold shoulder.
“I wouldn’t be totally discouraged,” Hopkins began to say, but Conway walked out.
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
