Siting Santa Monica: Ocean to Beach

Siting Santa Monica: Ocean to Beach

There is a magical walkway between Street and Santa Monica Beach.

On Ocean…beguiling architecture can be seen…

complete with detail of tile, brick and terracotta.

To the side..wooden shutters and pattern upon pattern,

giving new meaning to “white picket fence”.

As one moves down the walkway from Ocean to beach….one sees more layers, of pattern and material, plants and metal. Santa Monica knows from gates…weathered, imposing, architectural, artsy.

At the bottom of the walkway, is another magnificent building that manages to combine quaintness and stateliness.

More texture.  This side faces the beach.

Heading back up the walkway, towards Ocean Street again, one passes more brick, banked with foliage and flowers.

Palms, succulents, flowering plants and a mix of materials soften the concrete.

The walkway weaves its magic…feeling for all the world like a picturesque country lane…

Albeit one with some interesting signs, which betray its origins in the world’s entertainment capitol.

More gates, and a visual archway created.

These could be the gates to an Tuscan Villa, if one didn’t see the Pacific Ocean to the right, directly West.

True to ever artful Santa Monica, brick pattern and mosaic design add just enough visual interest to a garden wall to arrest and entice.

It is no accident that the mosaic design leads our eye to the gate, and what lays behind it.

I turn, to take in the Western view…from where I walked,than back Eastward, to Ocean, where I am walking to.

For now.