In their bimonthly meeting on Wednesday January 22, the Culver City Planning Commission granted a conditional use permit for the conversion of a 3,750 square foot office building at 11134 – 1136 Washington Boulevard into a 4,063 square foot daycare center operated by Purple Magpie Mandarin.
Jonathan Wang Design is listed as the designer for the project, which in addition to adding an outdoor play area to the existing structure will also design four classrooms for 60 children between the ages of 1.5 to 6 years. Parents won’t have to worry about their children navigating through traffic on busy Washington Boulevard; the alley directly behind the former office building will host staggered drop offs and pick-ups between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.
According to its website, Purple Magpie Mandarin, which currently has a location at 11814 Braddock Drive, is a “high-quality daycare program focused on teaching Chinese language and culture” run by teacher and private tutor Xiqian Luo. The daycare’s name is a translation of Luo’s birthplace and UNESCO world heritage site Ziquejie Terraces, and offers select weekend lessons in Mandarin. Reviews on Yelp are overwhelmingly positive, with one parent writing that “finally there’s a great Chinese immersion daycare/preschool on the west side.”
This stretch of Washington Boulevard is close to a number of small restaurants, including chain franchises and smaller independents like the Millcross Coffee Bar and Kitchen, as well as renowned Los Angeles artist Doug Aitken’s studio. Directly to the southeast of the project, single-family homes and apartment buildings make up the neighborhood between Washington Boulevard and Culver Boulevard. The approval of the conditional use permit comes during a spate of recent developments within Culver City, including the implementation of 24/7 bus and bicycle lanes throughout downtown.
