Perfect, we can just quick overview just the idea of wildflower. It's really a play on words with what I call my daughter. We're avid hikers and when we would go out she would be the one kind of meandering right on the edge of the mountain Picking wildflowers and she has a very free spirit. And so It literally just was a project file name when I first named it and then it kind of stuck and then it kind Of stuck with the ecology of Ojai, and and I just kind of said wildflower fits And so that's kind of the origin story of how I came up with Willow The site itself is Really intended to be that anchor and I would say maybe the missing anchor of the east end as it transitions into the town center area. It's on the hard corner of East Ojai and Bryan Street, it's just under a half acre so it's a really tight site and so Planning exercises, I should have included the slide where I had 30 different versions of the site plan trying to make something that would work, would fit in with the design guidelines and hopefully fit kind of the character of the neighborhood.
And so there was an upfront priority to prioritize open space just from the guest experience This beautiful natural environment is the really redeeming character and draw why most of you probably moved here, and why people want to come to visit. So I wanted to prioritize that. And then kind of getting into the fundamentals of the site itself. You know it's zone C1 so hotel is a permitted use.
There's little clarification on the land-use designation of commercial manufacturing Technically that is the the land use designation but a couple layers deep into the land-use code. There's actually East over East East oh, I Designed concept kind of overlay that actually encourages service oriented and tourist oriented Uses and specifically names hotel as an approved use. And so it's it's not necessarily a required in my humble opinion general plan amendment because it is identified specifically in the land use element as an intended use of that area and then to be encouraging that type of development along Ojai Avenue in this kind of bracketed area around Montgomery on to you know down past Soule. And so knowing that on the front end kind of was the impetus for me Go ahead and move forward with acquiring the land, and then obviously creating the vision of Willow.
Next slide please This, Mara kind of hit on it. This really is a labor of love again I've had this vision for like 15 years it started in New Orleans kind of stepping back into my approach as a neighborhood developer. I came up with a recipe for placemaking that I called at the time and it was people places and reciprocity. It's one part people one part place and two parts reciprocity The reciprocity part is programming and participation. And it takes an inspired mind to create an environment that hopefully willing participants will come and enjoy, you know, and really elevate the experience collectively. And I got really excited about the idea of communitas. It's kind of a group flow statement. Eight cabins get filled up with people. They're all coming out here intentionally either rest, relaxation, rejuvenation but they get to have this shared experience and each individual person's experience elevates that next person's and collectively they have a great time.
And so that's kind of the embodiment of what I was trying to drive at with the landscaping It's intended to be lush and plush. I call it moment-making design where if you could look at something, a sculptural element, a blue agave plant, an orange tree, you know something that would catch your eye unique wildflower we can tell the story about its origin the connection to the region and those are special moments and they matter to me they matter to me when I go You know someplace that has kind of leaned into experiential hospitality particularly and there's a story to be told there The units themselves. The intention is that it's kind of really designed for the modern traveler I have two kids It's very hard to go and book a hotel room you get two queen beds.
The kids are jumping on the bed You can reach up and touch the ceiling low-volume ceilings. You feel like you're in a sardine can and so the idea of these lofted suites Creates some separation from the living area and in the bedrooms. The indoor-outdoor experience is intentionally designed to have the patio and connectivity into the great room, but it's really the experience that you're missing in Ojai.
This is a place to relax and let down. It's not transactional you shouldn't come here and just be in the hotel room, and you got to be out of it because You can't you're kind of contained within the four walls And so this is a place that hopefully embodies what I believe that I feel when I come up here Which is essential of relaxation if you move the next slide And so again, I've multiple iterations but I tried to lean into just the basic site conditions. I have an existing access easement off of Bryan Street so it's natural location to put the parking in the back and then I wanted to create As much open area as I could and kind of preserve that character. So currently there's about 70 feet of frontage, of open space with a four-foot fence so there's some visibility into the courtyard.
The courtyard itself, the programming aspect this view here was really the initial vision of a living wall It's kind of morphed into an example activation of a movie wall and that really was after a conversation that I had with the planning team in, I think November. We were explaining the project kind of saying hey are there elements that would be interesting to the community? And they said oh you know that's something that's kind of missing when people come in here is there anything that they you know the community could participate in and I was like well Had this idea and it's really centered on like silent disco and you would have headphones on so there wouldn't be any sound projection And we could have an outdoor movie. And I and so that was an application of just the backdrop of the living wall Which was really a method to screen the broad side of that unit because it's kind of boring I thought about a mural but again, this is kind of a landscape oriented hotel.
So the idea of having a Living wall was was really the original vision and then it kind of transformed into a boulder garden So on left and right field, there's kind of boulders in the middle of sand. So you got some different materials And so it becomes kind of a dynamic area But the backdrop is obviously the green and flowerful living wall And so that's an element just want to kind of highlight on if you can move the next slide This is really just showing the Approachability of Willow The units are intentionally designed in clusters So there's some breaks in between so you can kind of see, you know through the project obviously at the you know at a Walker's view. You can kind of see into the yard and that open space is maintained go to the next slide Now this is an important slide for me because I think right now on that hard corner, which is really a critical corner at the gateway to the town center, is a vacant parcel.
And then you have some really dynamic uses. You've got Light and Space to the west, you've got the Ojai Pub, you've got Vickie's Thrift Shop, Garden Temple which is a great store and then Izakaya Moon Phenomenal Sushi next to me is Rise Ojai and so they have the hair salon there and what I think is going to be kind of a ghost kitchen for the old restaurant on the corner What's missing is Something in that on that hard corner that ties everything together And so the idea in the land-use element of talking about having an anchor for This corridor the transition into the gateway of downtown. I thought this would be a great anchor for that and so The scale of Wildflower, it's really one and a half stories. It's really not even two the total clear heights 22 feet in C1 zoning in this particular area 35 feet is the max height so it was intentionally built to a lower scale because again I was trying to fit in with the neighborhood The second floor is really just a five-foot knee wall and then it has a pitch roof, the gable roof.
And so the...and then the color scheme itself I wrestled with this for too long but in the design guidelines it talks about that kind of an earth tone color palette and so the idea here is there's more of a modern mountain design And then the idea is that it kind of blends in with the background. So you mix in with the olive trees which are missing, that will remain along Ojai and then there's some new trees along Bryant Street and a sidewalk.
The color scheme, the dark olive, the burnished slate wood, the lighter...it's kind of like a driftwood Plank panel that kind of surrounds the the glass wall Those are natural elements that when you're in nature, that's kind of what you see So the idea was that I could deliver something. That's obviously new But it will look like hopefully to some degree that it's always been there so the scale of it even just a simple structure or the gabled roof and It's kind of barn-like. There are some examples of caravan outposts that have their original building and has a metal roof, very simple structure. There is the diagonal in the back next to the landscape group, the same thing.
And knowing that there is some rich architecture down in the town center area And then it's a little bit more eclectic on this end. I was trying to do something that wasn't so over the top from an architectural standpoint, but again it would look like that it's kind of always been there and then the compliment would obviously be in some rich landscaping to add to the flavor there.
Then going back to the land use element of this The CM is an interesting kind of definition of what goes into CM, and it really states that there are broad uses that are complementary. And then there's another layer about the specific interest in clarification of what is intended to be on this frontage corridor really of these parcels that just align on Ojai. And in hotels specifically called out there and then on the complimentary side of things Hotel is really a asset class that is complementary to most other assets Asset classes and so and then you look at kind of what's to the immediate immediately adjacent to me as a hair salon Next to that was a restaurant. They're both under the CM they're both under c1 zoning and So kind of going back to what really would be more of an administrative cleanup on that general plan amendment to shift it to general commercial It's really reflective already in the land-use element if that's what it was intended to be and now it's more of a cleanup item than A requirement to do it because I'm changing the use to something that it wasn't supposed to be.
I just wanted to highlight that Go the next slide This is an example of really the shared common yard. Again, the introduction of the movie wall was really it was an evolution of the vision of what's possible. I had an experience where my son plays Little League baseball and we had a community night down in the field and we watch Rookie of the Year and the whole league came out and watched this outdoor movie It was fantastic. It reminded me, I'm from a small town north of Pittsburgh and we used to go to the drive-in movie theater and it's there something about being out in the element experiencing a movie that's different obviously with you know other guests and family members and friends and I really enjoy the experience and so that's just one example of why I had an open lawn So the guest experience people could have some space to do things if they wanted to hold yoga out in the yard, they could do that.
And then the wellness in the fire pit area you know I think a reason why people come to Ojai and more importantly What you really need to do that in my phase of life and most people they need to treat themselves to some Relaxation and rejuvenation. And so integrating the wellness components here were important, and I think it'll Lend well to a great guest experience But hopefully what you're trying to get out of a weekend or a couple days stay here That you can really pour into the wellness aspect of things go to the next slide Yeah, same thing. I wanted to zoom in on here one of my favorite movies Sandlot again this is a more representative of what the experience is intended to be or an example of it if you notice there's some headphones on the folks that are sitting in the yard if you've ever been to a like a rooftop cinema club experience they Bluetooth into you know private headphones so there's no sound transmission And I thought that was important and that's kind of the intention.
If that was going to be an activation, it would be in that kind of format versus blasting speakers and creating some environmental noise. So that's just an example and again zeroing in on what's possible with open space and what could obviously lend to a great guest experience. Then it also lends into the idea and the mission that I'm trying to achieve here It's moment-making design.
My kind of tagline is that we live life to reminisce and make moments worth remembering, and that's kind of how I live my life. I think if you can engage in something in all the busyness of your life, engage in experience that you remember—and hopefully it's a positive one—you should try to stack as many of those as you can. Life is challenging. There are all kinds of twists and turns And so for this next phase of my life and career, that's what I want to do. And so that's kind of the mantra of Wildflower and there will be more to come on that side of things.
Oh, we've talked about the units a little bit. This is just kind of an as-built example of what it could look like. You can see the full height glass. It's kind of leaning into biophilic design principles so you have an indoor outdoor experience. You have the great room experience so there's some volume and Even though these units are small, they're relatively large for a hotel room and it has the dynamic experience of a great room with the seating area, the separated bedroom, the dramatic ceilings. And it lends itself to a great indoor-outdoor experience with the full glass wall.
Again that's intentioned. Kind of goes back to you know, my experience now as a two-time dad and how we travel And then just in general the experience that you expect and particularly on a quality side Hopefully these units would match the quality of the community And obviously it's world renowned here. And so that was the intention of really pouring into the units in that regard Go to the next slide And to wrap it up, I'm excited to be here.
This is a part of my listening tour. I wanted to add this context now but I'm so excited to hear from the community and I'm excited to hear from the Planning Commission. We've been engaged with the planning staff for quite some time and been trying to shape the vision and hopefully match you know kind of OHAI and deliver a project that really fits in and so Excited about the feedback. I would love to understand if there's you know opportunities where I can engage the community more I'm an open book again This is this is my California dream and I'm excited to share it with you So as questions come up, I'm happy to answer them And if this is a you know, hopefully we can have productive conversation around it Thank you. Thank you very much
