Recent Comments

I agree. Love Shelton’s creativity and the combination of whimsy and classic Spanish style. When I first saw his work I immediately thought of the famous Spanish architect, Antoni Gaudi, who helped make Barcelona such an unique place. I think Jeff and his vision has enhanced Santa Barbara and contributed to our status as a beautiful city filled with remarkable architecture.

As locals, we frequently drive from Ventura to Santa Barbara. She makes me feel elegant and always makes me smile which makes me feel great! I always blow her a kiss and miss her when she was gone. Thank you for sharing the story of The Red Stiletto.

The Solvang "house" deserves some kind of award - - but what would you call it? ; - )

Wow, all this piling-on Jeff Shelton and the SB "look". I know I won't convince the critics here, but I love both. The argument for the HLC and preserving the SB Spanish Revival look can be found in almost any other city anyplace in the U.S. There is a new "look" out there that is repeated everywhere - metal siding, concrete, small balconies and bland bland bland. But cheap to build! If you like that sort of thing, Oxnard is there for you. I see new buildings going up in Carp that could as easily be built in Des Moines. Does the HLC go overboard sometimes? Maybe, but I prefer that to no care at all. As far as Jeff Shelton is concerned, I like the creativity. He pushes the HLC to accept creativity within their restrictions. His buildings make people smile (at least the ones I drag downtown to look at them). You can't say that about the cement monstrosity I call the Gold's Gym building on Upper State or some of the other squat gray blocks in other towns. One vote anyway . . .

And to add - the problem here is not really architects or architecture schools - the issue is the HLC and Design Review Board. They say there's no dumb questions, but I'd submit that "what would a multi-story municipal garage look like in the Spanish Revival style look like" is actually a very dumb question, and leads to extremely odd disputes like whether or not solar panels on the roof of said structure look like pergolas or not. Or extended fights over the color of bike docking stations. This is how you end up with countless architectural features whose sole purpose is to comply with theme, rather than serve an actual purpose. The El Paseo district above all is littered with fake balconies, cement painted to look like wood and other such oddities that serve one and only one purpose - to adhere to theme in a way that would make Walt Disney proud. The sad truth is that the surest way to develop a property with the current oversight structure is to propose that it's got stucco walls, some metalwork and a red tile roof. Instead of highlighting the actual historic structures we have - which are on the balance wonderful - these in my mind only cheapen them, offering crappy generic looking versions of the same idea, over and over again. One only has to look to Solvang or the French Quarter of New Orleans (where the current city historian served) to see that the eventual end point of thinking of your downtown as a theme park is the creation of spaces that serve the tourist visitors only, and become spaces that locals want nothing to do with. Unless, of course, you're Jeff Shelton, then yeah go ahead and make a building shaped like a shoe.

SBSince I actually agree with you that the idea that the default look for SB buildings should be some vaguely Spanish-Revival-ishhhhh has gone wayyyyyy too far. Especially in the downtown area, the purpose of the HLC seems to have morphed from preserving historic structures, to enforcing an almost theme park level of uniformity. But. I also think Jeff Shelton's stuff is wack.

I don’t understand Jeff Shelton architecture, It looks like a childish cartoon. In my opinion it doesn’t match SB at all especially in main areas like the State street underpass. Don’t like it at all.

I heard it's going to be a Rusty's.

There is an area where short term rentals are allowed, for the most part centered on State Street. https://www.arcgis.com/apps/instant/basic/index.html?appid=0c3a389f1de645319b10e95a206b32b4

She maintained the rose garden for her friend, despite the major difficulties in growing roses next to the ocean. She had them covered every night, which was a bother to the ghastly griping caretaker, who she fired in 2007. After she left the final time that year he yanked them all out! They were very sweet old fashioned roses in marvelous colours. Everyone should pray that sweet Huguette will finally get some Justice after all this wicked selfish mendacity.

There is still outdoor seating in the patio by the main doors.