Santa Monica is set to honor the architect behind Bergamot Station, The Bay Foundation for its coastal dune restoration work, and a volunteer at the Santa Monica Conservancy's 2026 Preservation Awards this Sunday. The ceremony runs from 2 to 4:30 p.m. at the Santa Monica Bay Women's Club, located at 1210 Fourth St., with the formal awards program beginning at 3 p.m.
According to Santa Monica Daily Press, the Conservancy will present a Special Tribute Award to Fred Fisher & Partners for work spanning more than five decades, including Bergamot Station, the Annenberg Community Beach House and City Hall East. The Conservancy has credited the firm with transforming significant Santa Monica sites into public spaces while respecting their architectural and cultural histories. Writer and broadcaster Frances Anderton will host the tribute and lead a conversation with Fisher about his ideas, projects and impact, according to the same report.
A Broadcaster's Perspective on Design
Anderton brings a deep design resume to the role. She is the former host of KCRW's DNA: Design and Architecture, she teaches at USC, and she wrote the book Common Ground: Multifamily Housing in Los Angeles, per the Daily Press account. Tickets to the event, which include a Q&A session with Fred Fisher and Partners hosted by Anderton, are detailed by the Conservancy itself at smconservancy.org, which notes that admission also covers a “Taste of Santa Monica” reception featuring the city's culinary diversity.
The Bay Foundation will also be honored, for its work restoring coastal dunes along Santa Monica's shoreline. The report states that the work helps revive native habitats and strengthen the ecological resilience of the shoreline. The Bay Foundation's own project page describes a 2025–26 expansion that would bring the coastal dunes to more than 23 total acres, while a separate statement from the City of Santa Monica characterized the same expansion as adding nearly 30 additional acres of beach returned to a natural state — the two descriptions of the project's scale are not reconciled in available materials. The Bay Foundation says it established its first dune restoration site in 2016, with additional acres added in 2024, and has identified the latest work as Phase III of a plan to build dunes along the entirety of Santa Monica Beach.
A Volunteer's Native Garden Legacy
Hilda Weiss will receive a Volunteer Service Award for developing a California native plant garden tour at the Conservancy's historic Ocean Park headquarters, the article notes. The recognitions round out a slate the Conservancy describes as honoring an architecture firm, a coastal restoration effort and a volunteer, continuing a tradition the nonprofit has kept at its Annual Meeting since 2004, per the organization's Preservation Awards page.
Beyond the honors, the program will include an advocacy update, and the Conservancy plans to invite attendees to join local advocacy efforts ahead of a Dec. 14 hearing on the Penguin/Mel's Diner. Proceeds from the event are intended to support the Conservancy's advocacy, education and community engagement work to protect significant places and share the city's stories, the report states.
How to Attend
Tickets and additional information for the Nov. 8 ceremony are available at www.smconservancy.org/2026preservationawards. The event offers a chance for Santa Monica residents to recognize both a design legacy shaping public spaces across the city and a restoration effort reshaping the health of its shoreline, all under one roof at the Women's Club this weekend.
