CORONA DEL MAR DESIGN PROJECT AWARDED TO SANTA BARBARA FIRM

A neglected coastal lookout in Corona del Mar moved a step closer toward restoration Tuesday night when the Parks, Beaches and Recreation Commission of Newport Beach formally approved the winner of the Inspiration Point design competition.

Santa Barbara landscape architects Cunningham Design Inc.--working with artists Helen and Newton Harrison, Paul Hobson and Marcello Petrocelli--have reduced the ambitious scope of their original two-phase plan to comply with budgetary constraints as well as the desires of local residents that the upper level of the site be left untouched.

The team estimated that the new design will cost $158,000 in its entirety, within the budget created by pooling allocations from the city budget, Newport Beach’s “Salute to the Arts” and the Parks, Beaches and Recreation Commission. The restoration would be Newport Beach’s first art in public places project.

In its revised form, the plan incorporates an undulating concrete pathway, a “sunken plateau” with carved boulders serving as benches and tables on the middle level of the site and a major emphasis on replanting to control erosion. A “water rock” fountain is no longer part of the project.

Funding for design fees (a sum still undetermined) will be requested from the Newport Beach City Council Sept. 14. If the request is approved, the final design plans will be voted on by the Arts Commission, Parks, Beaches and Recreation and the City Council, and the project will be sent out for bids.

“We’re assuming (final costs) will be in the ballpark,” said Deborah Polonsky, Arts Commission chairman. “We’re all very enthusiastic about it.”