Dana Point, Calif., is a coastal city in Orange County best known for its harbor. Lately, the city’s downtown area has become more appealing to visitors and residents alike, thanks in part to redevelopment that has created more live-work-play options. Prado West is one such project. This mixed-use development on 2.3 acres consists of three buildings that encompass 32,500 sf of retail and restaurant space, 109 apartments with 50 floor plans, and a 24-hour fitness center.
The developer, Raintree Partners, had owned this site for a while, and was on board with the city’s vision to regenerate its downtown area, says Michael Heinrich, a Principal with AO, the architectural design firm that was the design architect and AOR on this project.
Raintree, he adds, “was not the typical multifamily client we usually work with. But it always intended for the project to be mixed use.”
Smoothing a hilly site
![Part of Prado West's residential offering.](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Prado%20Eest%20res.jpg)
Prior to Prado West’s emergence, this site was an assemblage of buildings and parking spaces that included a post office and distribution center (both of which Raintree tried, unsuccessfully, to acquire). The site’s “urban character” was “pretty sparse,” recalls Heinrich, with its collection of sheds for street merchants.
The triangular site was sloped, and required a considerable amount of grading to make Prado West work, especially for the retail stores and restaurants. Heinrich notes, too, that the project required subterranean parking under a street called Amber Lantern that needed to be rebuilt.
(The building team on Prado West included W.E. O’Neil Construction (GC), Psomas (CE), Hendy (interior design), Nova Services (geotechnical engineer), and GMP Land Architecture (landscape architect)).
Scaled to its surroundings
![Residential over retail at Prado West.](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Prado%20West%20%20mixed.jpg)
The 3- and 4-story-tall buildings at Prado West had to stay within a prescribed 40-ft height limit, and the building team conducted a story pole analysis using cranes to make sure the buildings wouldn’t block residents’ seaside views.
AO, says Heinrich, does a lot of shopping mall renovations the incorporate residential to create a sense of place, like a village. At Prado West, the plaza is open to the city and is available for community events. I’m all for this,” says Heinrich about this kind of access, noting that the plaza is well lighted so there’s less concern about security.
This project followed form-based zoning, and AO did a unit plan that was almost like condos: the apartment sizes go up to 1,200 sf, with 100 ft of patio.
Heinrich says that among the takeaways from Prado West were “we learned about putting retail on a hilly site. And because this is a coastal town, the design had to be sensitive to appearance,” meaning that the buildings were scaled to seem smaller than their actual mass.
![](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Prado%20West%20PCH.jpg)
At the same time Prado West was under construction, the city was renovating the mile-long stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway that runs through downtown, widening the road to two lanes both ways, adding new curbing and planting new palm trees.
“It’s beautiful,” says Heinrich, “and I can see Dana Point finally fulfilling its vision.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Gold Award: Westin Book Cadillac Hotel & Condominiums Detroit, Mich.
“From eyesore to icon.” That's how Reconstruction Awards judge K. Nam Shiu so concisely described the restoration effort that turned the decimated Book Cadillac Hotel into a modern hotel and condo development. The tallest hotel in the world when it opened in 1924, the 32-story Renaissance Revival structure was revered as a jewel in the then-bustling Motor City.
| Aug 11, 2010
Silver Award: Palmer House Hilton Hotel & Shops Chicago, Ill.
Chicago's Palmer House Hilton holds the record for the longest continuously operated hotel in North America. It was originally built in 1871 by Potter Palmer, one of America's first millionaire developers. When it was rebuilt after the Great Chicago Fire it became the first hotel in the U.S. to put a telephone in every room.
| Aug 11, 2010
Gulf Coast Hotel's Stormy Road to Recovery
After his initial tour of the dilapidated 1850s-era Battle House Hotel, Ron Blount, construction manager with Retirement Systems of Alabama, said to his boss: “You need a priest more than you need a contractor.” Those words were more prescient to RSA's restoration of the historic Mobile landmark than he could have known at the time.
| Aug 11, 2010
Lifestyle Hotel Trends Around the World
When the Rocco Forte Collection opens the Verdura Golf & Spa Resort in Sicily in early 2009, the 200-room luxury property will be one of the world's newest lifestyle hotels. Lifestyle hotels cater to guests seeking a heightened travel experience, which they deliver by offering distinctive—some would say avant-garde, or even outrageous—architecture, room design, amenities, and en...