Concept design for Hill Street Café gets greenlight from city commission
Hill Street Café — a prime location within La Cañada’s Downtown Village — will soon be getting a makeover after the city’s Design Commission approved Thursday a concept design for a 1,000-square-foot addition and outdoor patio dining.
Design commissioners have been working with Hill Street owner William Lim over several architectural and design aspects of the project, which call for a trellised patio along Foothill Boulevard, a new monument sign and an entirely new front with entrance to the restaurant on the west-facing wall of the building.
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Thursday’s approval comes with conditions regarding paint colors, materials and landscaping that must be met for the project to be finalized but ultimately means Lim and architect Binny Um can move forward in the permitting process, said city planner Chris Gjolme.
If all goes smoothly, the planner said, construction could begin sometime this summer.
That civic green light marks a milestone in the planning process, which Um said has been two years in the works. According to Gjolme, the geographic prominence of Hill Street Café at the intersection of Foothill and Angeles Crest Highway is partly why so much attention has been paid to this particular project.
“It’s kind of a centerpiece property, so a lot of folks wanted to make sure what got approved was the best possible product for that location,” he said after Thursday’s commission meeting.
Um assured commissioners that both he and Lim, who was out of the country at the time of the meeting, were open to any suggestions the panel might have on the project as it moves forward.
The approved design follows previous iterations that placed the patio on the west side of the property, eliminating up to six nearby parking spaces, which the city’s Planning Committee took issue with in a previous meeting. It also featured many small architectural details added at the Design Commission’s request, including recessed windows in the front entrance and pitched roofs.
“This time, I’ve tried to accept whatever the committee and city staff recommend, so I put in a lot of details,” Um said. “This building is in a prime location, so the owner wants to try their best.”
Commissioner John Roberts, who weighed in on several landscaping elements around the property, acknowledged in his closing remarks the awkwardness of the lot as a factor in the project’s design.
“I think the applicant has been very sensitive to it,” he said.
Commission Chair Jon Moldafsky agreed.
“This is a really nice design,” he told Um, after the project’s approval. “Sorry it took so long to work through.”
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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com
Twitter: @SaraCardine
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