Solis: a garden tower redefining sustainable living

Santa Monica, California

Solis is an 18-story mixed-use residential and retail project located on Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica, California. Designed as a vertical extension of the public realm, the building integrates approximately 200 residential units above five levels of curated retail—featuring culinary, fashion, and design experiences—braided into a climbing sequence of drought-resistant gardens.

Through its synthesis of innovative timber construction, biophilic urbanism, and layered programming, Solis proposes a model for sustainable, community-oriented living—where nature, architecture, and culture are intertwined.

The ascending landscape begins at the entry plaza and continues upward in a progression of terraces, each layer varying in color, density, and texture. The gardens act as connective tissue—supporting a range of social, recreational, and ecological functions including a children’s playground, alfresco dining zones, and shared leisure areas.

The structure is composed of exposed Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT), with interiors featuring hardwood ceilings and floors. The lower retail levels are transparent, enveloped in glass, and light is filtered through a delicate screen of patterned wood slats. This articulated base provides a tactile, human-scaled experience that invites entry. The upper levels are wrapped in a high- performance double- glazed skin.

The mass of this tall building, unusual for the Santa Monica urban context, is divided in two distinct portions; a base which relates in height and bulk to surrounding recent buildings, and an upper one which ‘floats’ as a sculptural form above the base, designed to dematerialize into the sky as the day evolves.