Opening Set for Park’s Japanese Garden : Landscape: An idea that took root 20 years ago will blossom this summer, when the first phase of a $11.4-million Japanese Friendship Garden is completed in Balboa Park.
The first phase of the long-awaited Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park will open this summer, the garden’s landscape architect said Thursday.
The 11 1/2-acre project, which has been contemplated for more than 20 years, is being built in five phases and will cost $11.4 million. The group sponsoring the garden, the Japanese Friendship Garden Society Inc. of San Diego, has raised $1 million so far to help complete the initial phase.
Speaking at an outdoor ceremony on a spring-like day in the park, landscape architect Ken Nakajima told the gathering the first phase will be completed by July or August. Work began in January at the site on the rim of Gold Gulch Canyon.
Nakajima, who built a similar garden retreat in Moscow, was in town to consult with the joint construction team of Shimizu America Corp. and Nielsen Construction. Founded in 1804, Shimizu is the oldest and largest construction firm in Japan.
The entire garden should be completed in 10 years, said Larry L. Marshall, president of Japanese Friendship Garden Society Inc. of San Diego. Work will occur as funding becomes available.
Marshall said that “when we negotiated the 50-year lease with the city in 1984, we knew that it was unlikely (we could) . . . raise all the money to build the garden at one time. That’s why we designed the garden in phases.”
The city has pledged to donate $2 million, and plans to turn over $500,000 in June, Marshall said.
Included in the first phase are an exhibit room, a gift shop, snack bar, and an administration office. There will also be a sand and stone garden and a picnic area.
“We have a master plan, and the garden will continue to get better,” he said. “The zoo has been around for more than 50 years, and it is still adding attractions. We will be second only to the zoo in attraction.”
The master plan for the garden was approved by the City Council in 1979. The garden has been named Sankei-en, which means a garden with three types of scenery. When finished, it will feature a pond surrounded by paths, pastoral and mountain retreat settings, a tea house, culture center, arbor and exhibit building.
For all the anticipation, this is not the first time a Japanese garden has been built in Balboa Park. A tea garden, complete with a pavilion and a small tea plantation, was built for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. This is the 75th anniversary of the exposition. The garden was dismantled in the 1950s to make way for the Children’s Zoo.
In the early 1960s, the San Diego-Yokohama Sister City Society began to make plans to replace the one torn down.
Gold Gulch Canyon was selected as the new site in 1968, and the Charles C. Dail Memorial Japanese Gate was erected just north of the Organ Pavilion. And until January, that was the last construction on the project.
In 1980, the garden committee of the Sister City Society transferred control of the project to the new Japanese Friendship Garden board, which eventually began raising funds for the garden.
At Thursday’s ceremony, the San Diego chapter of Ikebana International, a nonprofit floral organization, donated $10,000 and the Kearny Mesa Rotary Club gave a $5,000 donation collected from five Rotary clubs in Japan.
