3rd Street Promenade

This guide to the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica follows the pedestrian street from its hopeful 1965 opening through the empty storefronts of the mid-1980s, when a new indoor mall at its southern end pulled shoppers away. It traces the city's costly two-year redesign in 1989 and the French artists, Les Lalanne, commissioned to give people a reason to come back. Look closely at the water spouting from unexpected places along these three blocks.