LAGUNA BEACH : Sculpted Fountain OKd for City Hall

It’s too modern, too big and inappropriate for the front of a Mediterranean-style City Hall, said some of the critics who turned out this week to discuss the sculpted fountain proposed for a remodeled Civic Center.

One man even said he is “violently against it.”

But the design is playful, it’s whimsical, it opens minds and stimulates discussion, proponents of the fountain countered. If the City Council were to reject the artwork, one implied, the city would have to “hang its head in shame.”

Dozens of people commented to the City Council about the Arts Commission’s recommendation favoring a contemporary fountain for the front of City Hall. Clearly, Laguna Beach residents still take their city’s reputation as an art colony seriously.

When it was over, a split council sided with the commission and approved the cantilevered, 12-foot-tall bronze fountain designed by Tom Askman of Spokane, Wash., in a 3-2 vote.

Askman was one of two finalists in a competition among 56 artists. The $27,000 sculpture is being designed in conjunction with the renovation of City Hall and will be placed on the corner of Forest Avenue and Loma Terrace.

The Arts Commission has taken two years to decide. The selection of the Askman piece stirred controversy among City Council members. Mayor Neil G. Fitzpatrick voted against the sculpture because he considers it too bulky for the corner plot.

Councilwoman Ann Christoph agreed that another site would be more appropriate.

Council members Lida Lenney and Robert F. Gentry said their minds were changed by the lively discussion Tuesday night. Lenney said she had been “informed, enlightened and, in fact, transported” while listening to the speakers.

Gentry said he would have voted against the fountain if the public speakers, most of whom favored the sculpture, had not shown up.

“I hope it stirs the community even more than it has tonight,” Gentry said.

In a related action, the council unanimously granted a staff request that $730,000 more be allocated to pay for unexpected cost increases for the City Hall remodeling.

City Manager Kenneth C. Frank told the council that “almost everything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong,” including the removal of more asbestos than expected and the project architect’s fall into bankruptcy.

Money will be shifted from other city projects, such as landslide repairs at Heisler Park. The crumbling bluff will be repaired with money from next year’s budget, Frank said.

Although the cost for the City Hall project has more than doubled to $4.1 million, from the $1.9 million estimated in January, 1989, the council voted, 3 to 2, to appropriate up to $4,000 more to add windows to the staff lunchroom so city workers will have an ocean view.

Fitzpatrick and Councilwoman Martha Collison voted against the appropriation.

The new City Hall is expected to open in September.