A Sustainable Place for Creatives

Opened in 2009, PLACE opened WĀV (Working Artists Ventura), the first sustainable arts community in the world. WĀV (pronounced wave) is a state- of-the-art, sustainable village designed for artists and creative businesses. Located in the cultural district of downtown Ventura, California, WĀV provides affordable living and working space for over a hundred artists of every kind; painters, sculptors, dancers, poets, musicians, filmmakers and more.

The WĀV Theater Gallery offers performances, art openings and public gatherings. Arts-friendly small businesses draw foot traffic and contribute to the vitality of the neighborhood. With the community involved in every phase of development, the WĀV is filled with diverse, mixed-income families and individuals. Supportive Housing provides homes and services to those at the lowest end of the income scale. Market-rate, ocean-view penthouses bring higher-income households to the community and helped to cross-capitalize the affordable components. The entire community is designed and built to the highest standards of green building technology (LEED Silver Award), including recycled building materials, car sharing, water and energy conservation, and renewable power from the sun.

Apply for WAV's Artist Live/Work

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[email protected]         805.641.0400

Land Acknowledgement

PLACE would like to acknowledge that we build on the traditional land of Indigenous Peoples. We honor the land itself and are grateful to the people who have stewarded it throughout the generations, including the Chumash and other Indigenous Nations.

Affordable Living

The WĀV community provides sixty-nine new live/work suites, all serving lower-income artists and their families. Because artists need high ceilings, plentiful light and open space, they and their families find it particularly difficult to live and work in traditional apartments. That’s why WAV offers fifty-four, affordable suites especially designed and funded for the needs of artists with families.

Fifteen new apartments are designed and specially funded to provide permanent supportive housing to the region’s most economically distressed families and individuals including young people aging out of the foster care system and recently homeless families. Rents adjust on a sliding scale, creating opportunities for people to have not just a roof over their heads, but homes in a community, regardless of their income.

WĀV provides crucial services necessary to help these households achieve economic stability. Supportive Housing is a national movement proving to be extremely effective. The US Department of Health and Human Services reports that almost 84% of homeless households were still housed after one year in supportive housing, and emergency room visits were dramatically reduced saving health care costs.

A number of WĀV homes are part of a family reunification effort that reunites families that have been separated by homelessness.

Luxury Living

Smart developments provide housing opportunities for people of all incomes. That's why WĀV offers thirteen luxury penthouse spaces with ocean views and private, rooftop decks. These three-story spaces are bringing creatives and small business owners to WĀV.

The WĀV Theater Gallery

WĀV integrates with the downtown community by offering free venues for community activities, including a 99-seat, white box, flexible space and an amphitheater for six hundred. Not only do cultural activities draw thousands of visitors, but the WĀV Theater Gallery offers opportunities for community performances, art openings, classes and neighborhood gatherings. The space has provided exhibition and meeting space at no charge for hundreds of artists, as well as nonprofits and public agencies. 

Harvest Cafe

Sustainability

Buildings consume seventy-two percent of America’s electricity, while spewing out nearly half the nation’s greenhouse emissions. Almost half of the waste choking our landfills comes from construction. We can do better. WĀV is the first LEED-Certified affordable housing project in Ventura, and only the second in the State of California. The WAV project will harness enough solar energy to actually provide electricity to the regional grid. LEED designed buildings are healthier for the inhabitants and the environment, while conserving our precious natural resources, and increasing our energy security. WAV has diminished utility bills for its community members over $20 per month on average.

Visit the WAV community website for information on upcoming events, artists living at WAV, renting the theater-gallery, and joining the community.

Let us help you find your visionary place.  Give us a call at 805.641.0400.

WĀV (Working Artists Ventura)
175 S. Ventura Avenue
Ventura, CA 93001
805.641.0400