Redondo Pier Design Gets Preview : Architecture: Public favors ‘V’ shape in survey, but council members and residents differ over Victorian vs. Cannery Row style.

The mermaid-shaped pier raised an eyebrow or two, and the nine-hole top-o’-the-pier golf course was impressive. But as consensus continues to develop on the renovation of Redondo Beach’s best-known landmark, the emerging favorite seems to be a simple, V-shaped design with a carousel.

The actual choice of a new pier design--and public hearings on the $6-million renovation--will not begin until June, when the matter goes before the Harbor Commission. The commission will make a recommendation next month, and the City Council will decide on the final design this summer.

But the community got a preview of the debate Monday night as the council reviewed the architectural options and the results of an informal local survey.

Harbor Director Sheila Schoettger said 195 residents, public officials and city employees had filled out “ballots” giving their design and architectural preferences for the new pier. Although the overall majority preferred a V-shaped pier over a pricier W-shaped option, the votes on the pier’s new architecture were split between an ornate Victorian style--based on the look of the old Hotel Redondo--and a plain, wood-and-corrugated-metal wharf architecture reminiscent of Cannery Row.

Schoettger said the harbor commissioners and city employees who participated in the survey overwhelmingly preferred the gas street lights, wrought-iron railing and open-trellised band shells of the Victorian design. But the majority of residents who voted at a community workshop on the issue wanted a pier more like those in the Monterey and San Francisco Bay areas, with wood railings and decking, old-fashioned tin shutters and street lights like those used originally on the city’s old Monstad Pier.

Councilwoman Barbara J. Doerr, at the council’s first public discussion of the issue Monday, also preferred “the more natural textures” of the Cannery Row-style architecture, and suggested that the final design options be put on a formal election ballot to ensure the maximum possible citizen review.

But the mayor and other council members rejected the notion as an unnecessary delay.

“We’ve already had a lot of public meetings,” said Mayor Brad Parton, noting that the pier issue has gone to a general election advisory vote and three community workshops, and will be subject to public hearings before the Harbor Commission and City Council before a final design is chosen.

“People just want this place built and cleaned up, and they want their public officials to get on the stick,” Parton said.

Besides, he and other council members said, they like the Victorian look.

“I’d like to rule the wharf style out because--other than not liking it--it seems to me to be more of a cold-climate architecture,” Parton said.

Added Councilman Terry Ward: “That Victorian is so elegant, I can’t even look at anything else. It just has so much class.”

All of the proposed piers--V-shaped or W-shaped, Victorian, Mediterranean or wharf-style--would provide more open space and better ocean views than the old, horseshoe-shaped pier that was nearly demolished by fire and storms in 1988.

Edward Carson Beall, the Torrance architect who presented the designs to the council Monday, said the new pier, regardless of the choice in design, will be nearly 6,000 square feet bigger than the old 54,600-square-foot pier, and will have the same 22,600 square feet of shops, restaurants and other commercial space.

The new pier will also feature a new public building--possibly a museum--and a series of waterfalls and “mini-parks” to add greenery to the sea-sprayed promenades.

Beall also gave the council the option of including a carousel, the option that received the most votes in the informal community balloting.

But council members were divided on whether a carousel is a good idea. Proponents, such as Councilwoman Kay Horrell, noted that the old-fashioned attraction is one of the most popular features at the Santa Monica Pier, in Long Beach and in Newport Beach. Moreover, she noted, restaurateur Wolfgang Puck, who owns Spago, has expressed interest in opening a high-end restaurant on the new pier, next to the proposed carousel site.

But Doerr and Parton fretted that it might degenerate from a family attraction to one that might draw gang members and riffraff with its carnival atmosphere.