{"id":2049430,"date":"2025-09-25T15:45:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T15:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2049430"},"modified":"2025-09-25T15:45:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T15:45:08","slug":"music-venue-restaurant-new-market-headed-to-downtown-santa-barbara-local-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/music-venue-restaurant-new-market-headed-to-downtown-santa-barbara-local-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Music Venue, Restaurant, New Market Headed to Downtown Santa Barbara | Local News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A downtown Santa Barbara corner may be headed for a dramatic transformation.<\/p>\n<p>The former Casa Blanca restaurant at the corner of State and Gutierrez streets could be home to a new music venue, a restaurant, a piano lounge and bar, and a park.<\/p>\n<p>The <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/santabarbaraca.gov\/historic-landmarks-commission\">Santa Barbara Historic Landmarks Commission<\/a> expressed support for the project and most elements of the design during a concept review hearing Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am pretty excited about this project,\u201d Commissioner Cass Ensberg said. \u201cI think it\u2019s really, really nice, and I really like the approach and the thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The site is currently fenced and generally has been an eyesore since it closed in 2020. The new owners of the building, Jeffrey Wilkins and 9 Muses LLC, purchased it last year and plan to eliminate 18 spaces and replace it with landscaping to create an urban park-like atmosphere.<\/p>\n<p>They want to include a restaurant and a market, an outdoor dining area and bike spaces, and make window and facade changes, including new steel canopies.<\/p>\n<p>The building is considered a structure of merit. A Moorish tower was designed in 1937 by Carlton Winslow and R.H. Pitman. The owners don\u2019t plan to make any changes to the tower. The building underneath was designed in 1926 by Lionel Pries in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, according to a report from the city.<\/p>\n<p>With new apartments across the street built by Peter Lewis and now owned by <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ucsb.edu\/\">UCSB<\/a>, business owners envision the area as vibrant and experiencing change. The city earlier this year wrapped up a redesign of the nearby State Street underpass, which includes whimsical art elements and new lighting.<\/p>\n<figure data-wp-context=\"{&quot;imageId&quot;:&quot;68d5395dcf024&quot;}\" data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" class=\"wp-block-image size-large wp-lightbox-container\"><button class=\"lightbox-trigger\" type=\"button\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-label=\"Enlarge\" data-wp-init=\"callbacks.initTriggerButton\" data-wp-on-async--click=\"actions.showLightbox\" data-wp-style--right=\"state.imageButtonRight\" data-wp-style--top=\"state.imageButtonTop\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"12\" height=\"12\" fill=\"none\" viewbox=\"0 0 12 12\">\n\t\t\t\t<path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M2 0a2 2 0 0 0-2 2v2h1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 1 .5-.5h2V0H2Zm2 10.5H2a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5V8H0v2a2 2 0 0 0 2 2h2v-1.5ZM8 12v-1.5h2a.5.5 0 0 0 .5-.5V8H12v2a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H8Zm2-12a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v2h-1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 0-.5-.5H8V0h2Z\"\/>\n\t\t\t<\/svg><br \/>\n\t\t<\/button><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A rendering shows a view of the music venue, park, restaurant and market proposed for the corner of State and Gutierrez streets in Santa Barbara. <span class=\"image-credit\"><span class=\"credit-label-wrapper\">Credit:<\/span> AB Design Studio rendering<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>Graham Goldich, the landscape designer for the project, said he wants to reimagine the corner of State and Gutierrez streets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have opened this corner entirely to invite people in off the street,\u201d Goldich said. \u201cAs you are walking by, it is just completely closed off, and we really want to bring people in.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<\/p>\n<p>The architects for the project, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abdesignstudioinc.com\/\">AB Design Studio<\/a>, said people would likely park in two nearby city lots. Clay Aurell, co-founder and principal of AB Design Studio, said they are in talks with nearby <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/\">REI<\/a> to use its parking lot at night.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are removing all the parking, and we are trying to create a park-like setting on the corner of State and Gutierrez,\u201d Aurell said.<\/p>\n<p>He said the exact programming is yet to be determined, but the idea is to have the market be a place for coffee in the morning and sandwiches for lunch, and then the restaurant a place for dinner. The piano lounge would include a bar, and the music venue would host events day and night.<\/p>\n<p>The commissioners were generally supportive of the project, offering some feedback, including less landscaping so that the buildings aren\u2019t hidden from the street. Other commissioners expressed concerns about the colors of the entryway at the corner, preferring something darker.<\/p>\n<p>Commissioner Ed Lenvik said he didn\u2019t like the paving materials because they didn\u2019t fit with Santa Barbara, and that he envisioned \u201cguacamole and catsup\u201d staining them quickly.<\/p>\n<p>Commissioner Dennis Doordan said the project seemed \u201coverdesigned to be casual.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Overall, however, the commissioners expressed excitement about something new.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnything would be better than what is there now,\u201d Commissioner Michael Drury said. \u201cThis is a very lovely project.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Commissioner Sheila Lodge added, \u201cIt will be very nice when it is done.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.noozhawk.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A downtown Santa Barbara corner may be headed for a dramatic transformation. The former Casa Blanca restaurant at the corner of State and Gutierrez streets could be home to a new music venue, a restaurant, a piano lounge and bar, and a park. The Santa Barbara Historic Landmarks Commission expressed support for the project and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2049431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[22764],"class_list":["post-2049430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-local-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Music-Venue-Restaurant-New-Market-Headed-to-Downtown-Santa-Barbara.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2049430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2049430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2049430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2049431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2049430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2049430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2049430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}