Santa Fe Depot

Annual Sponsors

Spectra Company

WJE

Architectural Resources Group & ARG Conservation

California Office of Historic Preservation

CAW Architects, Inc.

Environmental Science Associates

Evergreene

Historic Resources Group

ICF

IS Architecture

Kelly Sutherlin McLeod Architecture, Inc.

Napa Design Partners

Page & Turnbull

Simpson Gumpertz & Heger

Tef Design

TreanorHL

ZFA Structural Engineers

To learn about CPF’s sponsorship opportunities, click here or email Andrew Shaffer.

Monrovia Santa Fe Depot

The Monrovia Santa Fe Depot Rehabilitation Project is the winner of a 2018 Preservation Design Award. Award recipients are selected by a jury of top professionals in the fields of architecture, engineering, planning, and history, as well as renowned architecture critics and journalists. In making their decision, the jury stated: “This is a great rehab of a seriously neglected building. The new canopy is a good addition, and the right choice for roof material.”

The Award will be presented on Friday, October 19, 2018 at a gala dinner and awards ceremony at Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. Tickets and sponsorship options are available at californiapreservation.org/awards.

About this project

The Santa Fe Depot is one of the Monrovia’s most historically significant structures. The area around the Depot has been the primary rail transportation hub in Monrovia since 1887 which is also the year the City incorporated. The rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of the Santa Fe Depot preserves and reactivates an important component of the history of Monrovia. Connecting the past with the future of public transportation, the Depot sits directly adjacent to the recently completed Monrovia Station of the Metro Gold Line light rail, serving as an anchor to the transit plaza. It is also a focal point of the City’s TOD, Station Square.

The building serves as a physical record of events that shaped the City of Monrovia and its associated railroad and citrus industry. The Depot represents the significant contribution of the railroad to the broad patterns of Monrovia’s history specifically as an essential portal for the transportation of passengers and locally produced agricultural goods. It is Monrovia’s only remaining railroad-related building.

Additionally, the building is an excellent example of the distinctive characteristics of the Spanish Colonial Revival style with Neoclassical influences as applied to early southern California railroad stations of the 1920s.

After years of sitting vacant and falling into disrepair, the City of Monrovia was able to acquire the building as part of the Metro Gold Line construction negotiations.

The project comprised of the repair, restoration, rehabilitation and structural enhancement of the Depot. As the building would no longer function as its original use, the project was treated as an adaptive reuse to be repurposed as a restaurant.

The majority of the exterior was restored to its original appearance, however to accommodate future uses and environmental considerations, the project is more accurately defined as a rehabilitation. The interior of the historic public spaces (lobby/waiting room) including wall and floor finishes were restored.

Where needed, modifications were designed to reflect a historic reference consistent with and/or reminiscent of the original design but not mimic original features. As the original platform was not able to be salvaged, an expanded platform was constructed. A new modern design canopy was constructed above.