Santa Monica Animal Shelter

The City of Santa Monica required a complete gut renovation of their existing animal shelter facility, including a new public reception lobby, office space, staff locker rooms and lounge, exterior door and window systems, HVAC, and the addition of a shaded outdoor “meet and greet” space. The exterior of the formerly anonymous concrete block building was completely reimagined with a new entry “front porch” with architecturally integrated lighting, signage, and planters. The most striking element of the exterior is the wall mural depicting a sleeping dog, conceived by Corsini Stark Architects, utilizing the 8”x 8” concrete block wall as large pixels. Each block is assigned a uniform gray scale shade so that the image is in sharp focus from a block away and becomes more abstract as one approaches the building.

The mural was planned to be painted as a community engagement project, easily executed as a “paint-by-number” image by untrained volunteers.