San Clemente
Casa Romantica is the former oceanfront residence of the founder of the City of San Clemente, a beach community of 50,000 people in Orange County, California. The historic 1920’s Spanish Colonial Revival property had fallen into dangerous disrepair and was purchased by the City.
WolfBrown conducted a community-based planning process to design a project that celebrates the city’s history and maximizes public access. WolfBrown provided a feasibility study and plan to restore, preserve, rehabilitate and adaptively reuse the complex as an historic site and cultural/education center. The plan includes mission and goals statements, an analysis of potential users, a structure for a new nonprofit management entity, a capital and operating budget, a fund raising plan, and a staffing and programming plan. Working with historic preservation consultant Robert Chattel, the team proposed architectural treatment and alterations of the buildings and grounds and a detailed building program for exhibits, interpretive displays, performances, meetings, special events, horticultural gardens and a research library.
The WolfBrown report was approved unanimously by the City Council in March, 2000. Anthony Stark Architects & Planners and Isabelle Greene, the renown landscape architect have been contracted by the City to design and develop the project.