Scripps’ Plans for Aquarium Back on Track

The long-delayed construction of a new aquarium and museum at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography is back on track after geological tests showed that the proposed site, which has a panoramic view of the Pacific Ocean, will not need $1 million worth of shoring up as once feared.

“I’m overjoyed,” Tom Collins, associate director for administration at Scripps, said Thursday. “We had all been very, very disappointed because the site is so beautiful. The fact that we now know the site is stable is the greatest news we’ve had in a long time.”

Last November, administrators at the reknown research and educational institution announced that preliminary soils tests indicated that the 5.5-acre site east of La Jolla Shores Drive was potentially unstable because of a shift in the earth that may have occurred thousands of years ago.

More Tests Ordered

The aquarium-museum project, a dream of Scripps’ officials since at least 1966, was once again stalled as more tests were ordered and plans were made to shift the project to a less desirable site.

Tests by the Kleinfelder geological consulting firm of San Diego, which also did the earlier tests, concluded that the subterranean strata of clay between the bedrock and topsoil--called a slip plane--did not slant down toward the ocean, which would have required additional reinforcing.

“On the basis of information from additional borings,” said Kleinfelder senior consultant Michael Chapin, “we found that the westward edge of the slip plane is like a bowl with edges that come up on its east and west edges, rather than a continuous downward slope from east to west.

“Our conclusion now is that the site is generally stable for construction.”

The aquarium-museum is meant as Scripps’ major program available to the public. The current aquarium, built in 1951 west of La Jolla Shores Drive, is considered undersized and inadequate, with a limited collection and a pittance of parking.

Continual Setbacks

For more than two decades, Scripps has wanted to replace the current aquarium but has suffered one funding setback after another.

Unable to obtain public funds, Scripps and its educational parent, UC San Diego, announced receipt in 1986 of a $6-million bequest from the Delaware-based Stephen and Mary Birch Foundation. The price tag for the new facility, to be named the Stephen Birch Aquarium-Museum, is $8.2 million.

The museum will serve as the interpretive center for Scripps, the nation’s oldest and largest oceanographic center. Scripps has operated an aquarium and museum in various locations since shortly after it was founded in 1903.

The site for the new facility is a wooded knoll east of La Jolla Shores Drive that is now used for a ship-to-shore radio station. It provides a view of the ocean and beach, Scripps buildings and pier, La Jolla and La Jolla Cove, and, on a clear day, San Clemente Island.

Additional Drilling

Initial tests showed that the site may have been connected to the mesa located to the northeast and slipped downward to its current site. Additional drilling was then done to depths of more than 100 feet.

Collins said construction is set to begin in 1989 and the aquarium-museum is planned to open in fall 1990. Plans call for a 31,000-square-foot, one-story building, with 17,000 square feet of outdoor space for tide pool exhibits, picnicking and whale watching.

The aquarium will include 36 tanks of up to 50,000 gallons each, displaying marine animals in habitats representing the coast of California and the Sea of Cortez.

After the initial tests, Scripps administrators faced the possibility of either paying for a $1-million shoring-up effort or moving to a second site. The latter alternative would have hindered Scripps’ expansion plans by using up precious land.

Once the new aquarium-museum is opened, the old facility will become a collections center, housing the marine vertebrates, invertebrates, rock samples and core samples that Scripps researchers have collected from oceans around the world. Those collections are now scattered throughout the La Jolla institution.

Collins said that the slip plane will require compacting of the soil but he placed the cost at under $100,000.