Another Small Hotel Proposed for Downtown Santa Barbara

••• On today’s Historic Landmarks Commission agenda: the conversion of the office building at 16-20 W. Canon Perdido Street into a nine-room hotel.

••• This week, there will be alternating lane closures on Highway 101 from Carpinteria Avenue to Evans Avenue, as the rumble strips along the shoulders get converted to mumble strips—fabulous jargon!—in an effort to reduce noise. The difference between the two types of strips are explained here. (Bumble strips are presumably something entirely unrelated.)

••• In other freeway news, the start of the next phase of Highway 101 construction this spring will bring with it the end of the graceful, gorgeous southbound overpass at Hot Springs/Carrillo Boulevard. (The northbound one, in the third photo below, is less beautiful but I’ll still miss it.) I love the shape, but also the concrete, and even the patina. It has far more style than the design replacing it.

••• A reminder about charity muggers, a.k.a. chuggers, such as the ones outside the farmer’s market on Saturday: no matter how admirable the cause (in the case, the ACLU), you’re far better off giving money directly to the organization than to the middleman managing the chuggers.

••• A vintage shop called Antoine’s Gallery of Great Things—with antiques, art, fashion, furnishings, and jewelry—has opened at the Oreña Adobe (27 E. De La Guerra Street). It’s a pop-up while an adjacent permanent shop gets finalized.

••• The word on the street is that the Four Seasons Resort The Biltmore Santa Barbara is hoping to open in time for the summer 2026 season. But that’s not stopping owner Ty Warner from fiddling with the plan. On the Montecito Board of Architectural Review’s December 18 agenda: “changes to Cottages G and H to convert two rooms to garage space, plus six new gated driveways and parking areas, landscaping/lighting changes, and improvements to Hill Road.”

••• Bellosguardo has begun accepting volunteers to help with gardening.

••• The 34-unit apartment building (with a commercial storefront) at 219 E. Haley Street, just east of Santa Barbara Street, is making progress. I was alarmed when I saw the west elevation, because it’s not the complex’s best side, but then remembered that the 48-unit 201 E. Haley next door will block views of it. The rendering for 219 E. Haley shows a white exterior, but if 201 is going to be white, perhaps the beige seen below is a better idea.

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