For many longtime Hermosa Beach residents, the Community Center is a building with notable links to the past. The Hermosa Arts Foundation hopes to preserve the building’s significant history through two grants sponsored by the Getty Foundation.

If approved, the grants would assist the organization in maintaining the art deco architecture of the building while providing it with suitable documentation that could make the center eligible as a historic landmark at both the state and federal levels.

The Hermosa Beach City Council Tuesday night designated a portion of the center as a historic landmark as a way of backing the foundation’s efforts to procure the grants.

The Getty Foundation established the Los Angeles Planning Grants Program in 2000 as a way of supporting the conservation of historic landmarks considered culturally and architecturally important.

Only nonprofit organizations or government agencies that own these historic buildings are eligible for the grant. The building must also be accessible to the public or used to benefit the community.

The Getty Foundation’s first grant focuses on the planning and research of preserving the site’s history by hiring a professional architect. Participants could receive up to $75,000 used to design projects suitable for completion over a one-year period. The program’s second phase entails a two-year project process where the grant recipients carry out the designs and ideas brainstormed in the first phase. The Arts Foundation could receive up to $250,000.

The Getty Foundation is highly selective in awarding these grants to projects with a clearly developed design plan, drawings and budget.

According to Rick Koenig, the grant project’s coordinator and Arts Foundation vice president, a representative of the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles who consulted with the foundation over the Community Center’s new color scheme suggested the group apply for the grant.

“She just happened to mention that the Community Center and our organization might fit the criteria for this grant,” said Koenig. “We have a lot of needs and the center does look good from the outside, but now we need to work on the inside and we are all very

excited about this. This is something long overdue and we think it will benefit our community. The preservation of old buildings is a really important thing in Hermosa Beach.”

Architect Samuel Lunden designed the building, which was constructed in 1911, as the Pier Avenue School. City officials later converted the school into a community center and a playhouse. Lunden, who was famous in Los Angeles for his art deco work, also designed the Clark Building in Hermosa Beach located on Valley Drive and the old Pacific Coast Stock Exchange building in downtown Los Angeles.

According to City Manager Stephen Burrell, the only other designated historic landmark in the city is the Bijou Theater building, which the city recognizes at the local level under a different classification through a historical preservation city ordinance.

“The Bijou’s designation report is about a foot thick and it is really detailed,” said Burrell. “The two designations of these buildings are slightly different in that the Community Center has some functional use for the community, as opposed to the Bijou which is almost considered a type of monument with private use.”

Privately owned landmarks such as the Bijou are not usually eligible for the same grants as offered for the Community Center. The designation, however, can allow owners to receive a tax break.

According to Community Resources Director Mary Rooney, the city attempted to place Prospect School on the federal list of historic landmarks but its efforts never came to fruition.

“I think that any building under review by the federal government would have to have a pretty significant history,” Rooney said. “From what I understand, the Arts Foundation would like to preserve the historic elements of the building while still maintaining the flexibility of use because a considerable portion of the building is still used as a community center.”