Japanese Firm Will Pay for Arts Center Garden

For more than two years the city of Torrance has struggled to keep the cost of building its new Cultural Arts Center under $10 million.

So it is no wonder that city officials expressed joy this week when they learned that a Japanese computer manufacturer has agreed to donate $250,000 to pay for the center’s Japanese garden.

Epson America Inc., the Torrance-based American headquarters for Seiko Epson Corp. of Japan, told city officials earlier this week that it would pay the entire cost of the 10,000-square-foot garden.

“Isn’t that great?” Mayor Katy Geissert said. “I’m delighted. I’m delighted.”

The center, which is scheduled for completion in the fall of 1991, will include a 500-seat theater, community meeting hall, art studio, staff offices and dance and exercise rooms.

Torrance officials say they believe that the Japanese garden will be the city’s first monument to its Japanese and Japanese-American residents.

Geissert said the garden will be “a tangible bridge between the two cultures.”

Epson has also agreed to provide a landscape architect to design the garden, city officials said. The final design will require City Council approval.

Epson officials were not available for comment Thursday.

Geissert said the cost of the garden was not included in the total price of the center because several years ago a group of Japanese businessmen expressed a desire to build the garden themselves.

When the group decided it could not fulfill the task, Councilman George Nakano was asked to head a committee to find donors.

Nakano said he approached Epson representatives last December because the company had donated several computers to schools, and he believed that the company might be willing to make a contribution.

But he was surprised when Epson agreed to pick up the entire tab.

“I thought they would (pay for) part and that I would have to approach other companies,” Nakano said. “I was surprised that they were willing to do the entire thing.”

He agreed that the garden will be seen as a monument to residents of Japanese descent and said it will also symbolize the support Japanese companies have provided the city.

“I think it will demonstrate that (Japanese companies) are very much part of this community,” he said. “They want to provide every support that they can.”