SAN DIEGO
No longer an eyesore, the facade of the San Diego Automotive Museum in Balboa Park has been painstakingly restored following a six-year, $715,000 preservation effort that ties into a broader campaign to rehabilitate the Palisades in keeping with the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition.
On Tuesday, the Committee of 100, the all-volunteer group behind the restoration effort, is celebrating the building’s return to its roots by presenting four 8-by-18-foot murals to Mayor Todd Gloria, who will accept them on behalf of the city.
For the record:
8:54 AM, Apr. 13, 2021An earlier version of the story misstated the number of the tiles in the murals. The correct number is 576 tiles.
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The long-planned restoration of Balboa Park’s storied Botanical Building finds itself on unsure footing with the city of San Diego failing to secure a construction firm to complete phase one improvements.
Thursday evening, Christina Chadwick, assistant deputy director for the parks department, told Balboa Park Committee participants that the city had rejected all bids for work and would need to rebid the project. No reason was provided.
“Following a thorough review, all proposals (for the Botanical Building construction contract) submitted were rejected,” Chadwick said during the meeting. “The city is now working as quickly as possible to reissue the bid solicitation . . While this isn’t the outcome the city had hoped for, the project remains on track and timelines remain uninterrupted.”
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The plan to temporarily place an observation wheel in Balboa Park’s Plaza de Panama has been abandoned by proponents who are pointing to city bureaucracy and a vocal opposition group as insurmountable roadblocks.
“Regretfully, four months into this journey and after many hours dedicated to community outreach and responding to the city’s endless list of project action items, we’ve decided to walk away from the Balboa Park Star,” proponents said in a statement shared with the Union-Tribune.
The brain child of David Cohn of the Cohn Restaurant Group, the so-called Balboa Park Star was intended as a pandemic-friendly activity that could promote more foot traffic in the park at a time when many of the park’s other attractions museums and restaurants have limited or ceased their operations because of state and county regulations.
SAN DIEGO
A plan to temporarily place an observation wheel in Balboa Park has been abandoned by proponents who are pointing to city bureaucracy and a vocal opposition group as insurmountable roadblocks.
“Regretfully, four months into this journey and after many hours dedicated to community outreach and responding to the city’s endless list of project action items, we’ve decided to walk away from the Balboa Park Star,” proponents said in a statement.
The brainchild of David Cohn of the Cohn Restaurant Group, the so-called Balboa Park Star was intended as a pandemic-friendly activity that could promote more foot traffic in the park at a time when many of its other attractions museums and restaurants have limited or ceased their operations because of state and county regulations.