Project Overview

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Garden Street Terraces incorporates significant elements that support Downtown as the civic, cultural and social center of San Luis Obispo. In addition to contributing to the economic health of Downtown, the project creates an exciting, compact and visually interesting diversity of uses within a mixed-use structure.

The retail spaces along Garden Street will either be retained as is, or rebuilt to the same proportions as currently exist. The goal is to encourage a diversity of retailers by providing a variety of retail-space options, from smaller "sole-proprietor" or start-up retail spaces along Garden Street, to larger, more traditional retail pads along Broad and Marsh streets.

Individual character of retail spaces is achieved using a variety of "downtown" exterior-finish materials, such as brick and plaster, as well as utilizing a palette of "individualizing color" for storefronts, awnings and canopies.

The street façade designs provide both vertical and horizontal relief with varied setbacks, material changes, courtyards, balconies, terraces, trellises, cornice treatments and other elements, which work to "break down" the overall mass, bulk and scale of the project. Upper levels are terraced to not only provide architectural relief, but also serve to open up the project from the street levels. Widened sidewalks will encourage more pedestrian traffic, as well as accommodate outdoor retailing activities, including sidewalk dining.

The project reaches 50 feet at its highest point along Garden Alley and Broad Street, where the hotel rooms are located. The multi-tiered building heights allow for preservation of significant views and help to reduce the building mass and appearance from the street levels.

The historic resources along Garden Street will be rehabilitated and retrofitted and adaptively reused for commercial and hotel opportunities. No additional stories will be added to the historical structures, and therefore, the ambience of Garden Street will be retained.

The project design for Garden Street fulfills the goals and policies set forth in the City's approved Garden Street Improvement Plan. Significant improvements have been proposed for Garden Street between Higuera and Marsh Streets including: the narrowing of the roadway to a one-way street, major sidewalk widening and reconfiguration, expanded landscaping, a new pedestrian crosswalk and bulb-out at mid-block, street lights, and other pedestrian amenities.