Architect Luis Tena hopes to shepherd Malibu into the 21st century
By Benjamin Marcus
Kevin Keegan name-checked Luis Tena in his interview about technology. Luis is a passionate California-licensed architect who loves Malibu and can be found visiting his multiple job sites in Malibu Park, surfing any of the breaks from First Point to Leo Carrillo, driving his little black classic car through the canyons or at any of the city council and planning commission meetings.
Oh crud it’s Friday which means I missed that Thursday night City Council Work Session: Organizational Structure, Technology & Processes
You really missed it. Shoulda been there yesterday evening.
What did I miss?
It was interesting and intense. I feel like the city is sinking in terms of processing and people are not aware. We just suffered one of the biggest fires in Malibu history, which will demand a strong processing and permitting system that we don’t have. Something needs to be done, and I was able to translate that message. Now it is on the council and staff to act.
That little conference room layout wasn’t ideal. I didn’t have a projector or screen to show the presentation I prepared! No technology to discuss technology!
I’ve been to Spain. Spain rules: Surfed Mundaka, partied in Guernica, ate mass quantities of paella, visited the Prado in Madrid, visited the Picasso Museum, and celebrated Noche Vieja in Barthelona. Donde en Ethpana?
I was born and raised in Pamplona. Hemingway made our running of the bulls famous in the world.
Hemingway made it cool to write in bars, which is my excuse for being at Zinque all the time. Were you educated in Spain?
Yes, even though my dad’s family comes from Bilbao and Vigo and my mom’s is in Valencia, they raised us (I have a sister who now lives in NYC) in Pamplona, and I loved it.
Learn anything?
I learned that I wanted to get out of there and explore the world.
Can you in 50 words or less describe the arc that brought you from Ethpana to the New World — and why Malibu in particular?
I wanted to surf before going to work. I was craving the experience of living abroad, in a cosmopolitan city, with good weather all year round, meeting tons of cool people, and being close to the Silicon Valley world. LA and Malibu had it all: surfing, weather, tech, and people.
Olas y oportunidades to build creative, fancy houses for sophisticated people?
That came organically, to be honest. But yes, it is a dream come true to have my own architecture firm, be able to“choose” my clients and design homes surrounded by so much beauty.
What projects have you worked on around the world?
Many! As an architecture student, I started my own rendering company when I was 20. When I first moved to LA, being25, I worked for two architecture firms with projects all over the world. I remember working on a cool competition for an urban development and museum on the Gold Coast in Australia. I also worked as a builder in LA for three years, obtainedmy permanent residency and started designing my own architecture projects while living in Malibou Lake.
What projects have you worked on in Malibu?
My first job-site visit ever in the U.S. was the amazing Tadao Ando house (or museum) that Beyonce and Jay-Z recently bought for $200 million, so the stakes started kinda high.
Oh, that’s a Tadao Ando house? On Google Earth it looks like a university.
I was part of the design team working on the Nobu Ryokan, and I was Norm Haynie’s architectural right hand for his finally approved Malibu Sea View Hotel. I have helped more than 12 Woolsey Fire victims since I started luis tena Design back in 2019 and I have another eight “regular” Coastal Development Permit and Administrative Planning Review projects, which require tons of patience and perseverance: CDPs take 2 or 3 years in the planning phase and APRs around 1-2 years. PVs (Planning Verification) for fire rebuilds take from 1 to 2 months in the planning phase, for reference.
I guess the point of my three-part interview with Kevin Keegan is: This is the modern world. These are the days of miracles and wonders.
Nice Paul Simon reference.
If you had unlimited funds, where would you build a house in Malibu and what would you build?
That lot overlooking First Point from Serra Retreat with a small golf course.
I think it’s taken. Long story behind that place. African oil dictators and kleptocracy laws and Real Estate Housewives of Beverly Hills and that.
I would tear down the original “fake” colonial style house and design something with a lower profile that would recreate the original mount shape with a lot of indoor-outdoor transitions. I would use concrete walls, glass and steel outside, a green roof, and some warm wood interior walls and flooring inside. I will invite you to the housewarming party.
You said you met with Kevin Keegan and are on the same page?
Yes, he is a tech nerd like me and an intellectual. My type of guy.
Which page is that?
That when we talk about AI, it should be the same as talking about the internet or electricity. It is assumed it is part of our lives and we gotta make the most of it, or we will fall behind. Adapt or die!
About fixing Malibu permitting and planning?
For example. That’s more a personal issue and one of the reasons why I recently started newArch (www.newArch.com).The world of land use, design and construction has not had any substantial holistic change for the last … 200 years? We still build the same way we used to, design one by one each structure and the zoning rules and building codes are reactionary, band-aid style, and nobody has really tried to implement a holistic radical approach. I believe that now is the time to try. Let’s get inspired from the success of Big Tech, let’s use AI as a tool (not as a goal per-se) and let’s do it! I have a plan!
Seems to me the two biggest problems in Malibu are speed and safety on PCH, and the obfuscation and constipation of permitting and planning?
I think that those issues are in Malibu’s DNA. Let me explain: I love Malibu. It is so unique. It is pure beauty, it has waves, good weather … marries the beautiful Santa Monica Mountains with the Pacific Ocean, and it is super close to the second largest city in the U.S. It is also a very weird city.
There’s no real downtown. It is elongated, hard to access, exposed to multiple natural hazards … it is basically the opposite from a standard Roman town that looks for a flat, easily accessible, and guardable city “pad,” if possible adjacent to a river to impose a cool “Cardo” and “Decumanus.” Malibu wasn’t meant to be a city but it is one, and it requires a constant act of balance between its rural character and the basic means of modern civilization. Without the rural character, the Malibu that we love would die, and there’s no question about that. That’s why I am a huge supporter of Malibu’sMission and Vision statement and try to work with it, not against it.
All of this ties directly into your double question: safety on PCH and permitting constipation. The PCH was imposed intoMalibu and it is managed by Caltrans, a state agency. Malibu citizens want to get in and out of Malibu quickly, but they also want to be able to pull out from their garages directly abutting into PCH, which is kinda scary.
Regarding the permitting process… some people say that it is broken by design to prevent any type of development (good or bad) and protect Malibu’s rural character (and keep the value of the existing homes high). I think that technology can help prevent bad development and promote the good kind. If we use tech to streamline the permitting process, clean up the MMC and LIP codes and finally write down a bunch of clear policies that avoid interpretation or discretion by making it clearer that the Mission and Vision Statements are to be always protected, then we all win. That way Malibu wins because it stays rural, and the normal peeps that cannot afford the crazy, stupid amounts of expediting and consultant fees or time that it takes to get a permit, can get their little clean sheet or small remodel projects right away. We need to help that type of homeowner development and tech is here to do so!
Sorry, define MMC and LIP codes?
The MMC is the Malibu Municipal Code and the LIP is the Local Implementation Plan, imposed by the California Coastal Commission in Malibu via de LCP (Local Coastal Program). Both are very complex and open to interpretation. The Malibu Council has the power to modify the MMC, but any LCP changes have to be approved by the California Coastal Commission, which doesn’t always agree with Malibu.
What is/are the most egregious example(s) you have seen of permitting and approvals taking way too much time?
Jo Drummond always talks about her small, 64-square-foot deck addition that took her three years to get approved. You told me about the Edge, who spent 14 years and had to give up in the end.
Yes I wrote a very detailed account of that saga that’s on my benmarcusrules.com website with a clever/snarky title: “If You Wanna Kiss the Sky, Better Learn How to Kneel.” Should be required reading. What kind of experiences have you had with Malibu planning and permitting, or LA County or the State of California?
I work a lot in the City of Malibu, LA County Unincorporated, and the City of LA. I also have a project in a remote location in Lake Michigan. Bureaucrazy is like a parasite to society, very hard to remove, but it is there, and must deal with it.
The City of Malibu has better personnel than any other jurisdiction that I work at, but terrible processes. LA County personnel are extremely slow, but they have better technology, and that makes up for their lack of human resources.
In Malibu it takes three years what in Michigan takes three months. At this lake project that I have, they also have their own Coastal Commission called EGLE, so that shouldn’t be an excuse to be so extremely slow.
If you were King of Malibu and could wave your scepter and rearrange Malibu however you wanted, what would you do?
Oh that is a loaded question. Can we do a Part Two?
Si.
Gracias.
For more information and to see the projects he has worked on, go to luistenadesign.com