Bergamot Station

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bergamot Station is a facility housing many art galleries in Santa Monica, California, USA.

1 History
2 Transformation into an Art Gallery Complex
3 Present
4 Galleries at Bergamot Station
5 Other Amenities
6 Non Gallery Tenants
7 Trivia
8 External links

[edit] History

The name "Bergamot Station" dates back to 1875 when it was a stop for the Pacific Electric rail system which served the Los Angeles area from 1875 to 1953. The rail right-of-way known today as the Exposition Right-of-Way was then known as the “Santa Monica Air Line”, because sweltering Angelenos would take the trolley to the beach for a bit of cool air. After the Pacific Electric trolley cars stopped running in 1953, the site's warehouse buildings housed a celery packing operation, then an ice-making plant, and finally, the manufacturing home base for American Appliance water heaters.

The site currently known as Bergamot Station was purchased by the City of Santa Monica from Southern Pacific Railroad in 1987. The City hoped to provide a site for a future service yard or passenger station for the anticipated light rail service along the Exposition right-of-way. At that time, the City hoped light rail service from downtown L.A. to Santa Monica might be initiated within ten (10) years.

[edit] Transformation into an Art Gallery Complex

American Appliance moved out in 1993, leaving a sprawling industrial complex sitting vacant. Even under the most optimistic scenarios, plans for the light rail were years away. The City, seeking a productive use for the site, approached Wayne Blank, developer and co-owner of the Shoshana Wayne Gallery. Blank's development expertise had already been tapped by the City of Santa Monica for an earlier project: the conversion of a vacant city-owned airport hangar into artists' studios. The City, pleased with the airport project's outcome, asked Blank to conceive of an artistic use for the Bergamot Station site. Bergamot Station, a campus-like complex that has retained its industrial and rudimentary look, held its official opening on September 17, 1994.

[edit] Present

Since 1994, Bergamot Station has become a popular destination for visitors from around the country and the world. Bergamot Station provides a central location which allows visitors to park in one place and spend the day seeing art, rather than spending time driving from one gallery to the next. It now appears in every guide to Los Angeles as a primary cultural destination, with well over 600,000 visitors each year.