The Strand - Great Shopping, Dining & More!

The sights and sounds of downtown Huntington Beach sit in stark contrast to a typical downtown city scene. Surfboards and swimsuit-clad surfers outnumber luxury cars and black-tie executives.

“No Wet Feet” signs casually replace “No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service” in storefront windows. Sounds of Pacific Ocean waves take the place of honking horns.

No other city setting represents the surf culture of Southern California better than Huntington Beach. In addition, there is no doubt that the city’s atmosphere offers a certain charm that is simply not found in abundance across the country. In fact, it is often referred to as a “one-of-a-kind.”

Nevertheless, for all that there is to love about Huntington Beach’s laid-back downtown lifestyle, there was something missing – a lively downtown shopping and dining center that matched that of other similar cities on the West Coast.

That is until now.

HB Welcomes The Strand

Those concerned about losing HB’s free-spirited surf culture and
laid-back, beach town charm need not worry. Developers of The Strand planned to build on the unique Huntington Beach feel — not over it.

The Strand is Huntington Beach’s newest shopping and dining experience featuring great shops and restaurants, as well as The Shorebreak Hotel, a 157-room boutique hotel set to open in spring 2009.

Shops and eateries include Active Ride, Forever 21, Johnny Rockets, RA Sushi, Rip Curl, New Zealand Natural Ice Cream and more.

The Strand consists of 220,000 square feet in four individual buildings - all on the same block of downtown 5th Street. Buildings will connect via open-air walkways and will feature business offices in addition to its retail and dining space, as well as two-levels of parking with over 425 parking spaces.

Response from the community about The Strand has been overwhelmingly positive, according to Rob Wurl, vice president of development for CIM Group, the investing company leading the charge for the new downtown development.

“We simply wanted to energize downtown Huntington Beach, and there has definitely been an acceptance to that,” Wurl said. “We wanted this to be a development where kids on skateboards would skate by as one did the other day, and say ‘Wow, Huntington Beach has never had anything like this before.’”

A Meeting of Art and Architecture

Fine’s art plan at The Strand re-affirms the communal vitality
of the beach and pier, where natural forces of waves, sand and marine life meet human activity

Those concerned about losing HB’s free-spirited surf culture and laid-back, beach town charm need not worry. Developers of The Strand planned to build on the unique Huntington Beach feel — not over it.

“We really worked not to bury what currently exists downtown,” said Wurl. “We felt it was important to follow the surf theme and stay consistent with existing downtown architecture and structures.”

One way developers accomplished this feat was by giving The Strand a significant art component through sculptures, architecture, public art and landscaping.

Hiring Jud Fine — internationally renowned artist and professor of sculpture at USC — to create an actual art plan for The Strand was the first step in this direction.

Fine’s art plan at The Strand re-affirms the communal vitality of the beach and pier, where the natural forces of waves, sand and marine life meet human activity. Fine deftly captures the spirit of the Huntington Beach pier, surf and shore in a series of artistic elements.

Sidewalk and street surfaces are treated with colored and patterned materials to capture the sense of water, sand, bluffs and the pier. Two sculptures sited in context with the pier replicated in the paseo just off 5th Street bring power and drama to the downtown scene.

A towering and cantilevered wave of steel captures the awesome force of nature for which Huntington Beach is known, while a pier piling hosts a robust community of barnacles and mussels cast in bronze. The interplay of natural condition and human development, epitomized in the pier and surf zone, finds poetic representation in Fine’s grand artwork.

Surf’s Up at The Shorebreak Hotel

The Shorebreak Hotel will take on a
surfing, seaside feel of its own.

The new boutique hotel will contain a unique juxtaposition of the authentic history of Huntington Beach and modern, upscale “four-star touches.”

Old surfing photos and wall art will enhance a surf-clad hotel lobby and room interior, and overall building architecture will coincide with the surfing culture and truly be an extension of the beachside experience.

Preservation and Progress

While Huntington Beach’s downtown is evolving and progressing, careful steps are being taken to preserve the beach culture that makes the city an international icon of Southern California surf culture and lifestyle.

A well-deserved reputation lovingly protected - something you would expect from the classic American urban resort known as “Surf City USA.”