New Thoughts for De la Guerra Plaza
Some Reimagined Ideas for the Center of Santa Barbara
We have waited 100 years for a design worthy of our Plaza De la Guerra. Let ’s finally get this extremely important civic center of our town designed and working for its citizens, in the way it not only should function but as it was intended and hoped to be. This will not only bring people to the plaza, but also to the downtown area, and to State Street. It will put it on the map as one of the important, historical places to visit, along with the likes of our courthouse , our mission, and our waterfront.
Few people know the history of the plaza. The brief period of three years — 1922 to 1924 — is when most of the buildings that define and create the edges of the plaza were built. During this time, there were many wonderful designs and concepts proposed for the actual plaza. Sadly, none of these ever got built.
On June 29, 1925, Santa Barbara was struck with a devastating earthquake that required the city to refocus on rebuilding the city itself and thus put the plaza on pause. Next came WWII. So what we have in terms of a designed functioning plaza is actually an accident, or an undesigned space. It has never been the plaza that we were intended to live with for so long.
