The great wall of Hermosa Beach

by Garrison Frost

One of the things I like most about The Strand in Hermosa Beach is the wall that runs the length of it from north to south, separating the cement walkway from the sand. The wall is about three feet high, and while it has been repaired and kept up in some spots, it’s a little run-down in others. Regardless, this wall is probably what makes this section of The Strand better than its other versions in Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach.

For starters, the wall keeps The Strand clean. All you have to do is try to ride your bike down the bike path in Manhattan Beach or Redondo Beach after a wind storm to see what I’m talking about. Giant piles of sand will inevitably block your way. Water, too, tends to build up on these other, unprotected, walkways and bikeways.

Another contribution of the wall is that it creates a sense of containment on The Strand, and makes the public space more personal. In Redondo Beach, particularly, the bike path and tiny pedestrian walkway feel are flush with the sand creating one big overwhelming space. Sure, sometimes open and unconfined space is great, but other times it can make an individual feel isolated and small. Architects will tell you that people feel comfortable in rooms of a proportion. I have no idea what their formulas are, but you can feel it in the way some rooms seem more appealing than others simply because of their scale. Public spaces are the same way. You like walking down some streets because the buildings on either side make the space feel personal. In other areas, the streets feel uncomfortable, wrong. Well, there is something about the proportioning of The Strand in Hermosa Beach that works this way, something about the width of the space and the height of the houses on one side and the wall on the other. I strongly believe that it is this why The Strand feels so much more comfortable as a public space than the city’s pier plaza.

Another, perhaps more obvious, contribution of the wall is its role as furniture. You sit on the wall, lean against it, tilt your surfboard on it, hang your towel over it, block the sun with it – all sorts of things. People congregate at the wall, and mix with the people on the cement. Sure, The Strand is a fairly successful public space in other cities, in Manhattan Beach, particularly. But just as much as the lack of a wall encourages people in Manhattan Beach to scatter across the beach, the wall in Hermosa Beach shows just how such a structure can pull people together. And this directly contributes to making The Strand in Hermosa Beach much more public place. It is almost certainly Hermosa Beach town square, more so than the city’s actual town square.

(March 5, 2007)

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