It’s a Go for the Huntington Beach Art Center : Culture: The facility, to open in 1993, will be funded by $500,000 in donations used to completely overhaul a 1950s-era office building on Main Street.

Despite past delays and the recession, the county’s newest arts center should be under construction here in August.

To be called the Huntington Beach Art Center, the facility will fulfill a longtime dream of many for this seaside community of 185,000.

“I’ve always thought this city should be known for something other than its great surf,” said Lloyd Baron, one of the fund-raisers for the new center. “In the past we’ve had to go to other cities to visit art centers. Now we’ll have one of our own.”

The city’s new home for the arts, to open in 1993, will be funded by $500,000 in donations used to remodel a 1950s-era office building. And contributors have been generous, despite the economic downturn, according to Robert Goodrich, chairman of the Huntington Beach Art Center Foundation.

“Certainly the recession made it a little slower going than we originally planned, but the community responded in a very creditable way,” Goodrich said.

Start dates for the new center have been repeatedly pushed back the past two years, largely because of fund-raising problems. At one time, the city had hoped to start work on the project in 1990.

Last week, the most recent delay moved the date for starting construction from this month to August. But Michael Mudd, the city’s cultural affairs manager, said this latest delay is a happy one because it involves getting more money.

“We changed the date because we won a $7,500 grant from Southern California Edison to evaluate the working drawings for the center and make recommendations to improve the energy efficiency of the building,” Mudd said. “The city will save a lot of money over the years because of the energy-saving recommendations.”

Southern California Edison is also giving $13,000 for an energy-efficient kitchen in the new art center.

“What we’re so excited about is that this project has raised more than a half-million dollars in one of the worst recessions ever,” Mudd said. “So what we’re thinking, is what this project could do when we’re not in a recession.”

More than a mere remodeling, the project involves new construction inside and out, Mudd said. The old building was formerly used as a Southern California Edison office. The city purchased it in 1988 for $365,000 and gave it to the nonprofit foundation raising money for a proposed arts center.

“Getting the building for that price was a bargain, and we’re indebted to the former members of the city’s Allied Arts Board for lobbying the City Council and getting this done,” said Baron.

Preservationists are pleased because one of the city’s older downtown buildings will be saved. Many old buildings have been razed as redevelopment moved along Main Street.

The art center is expected to be a magnet that will bring more residents from this sprawling city into the downtown area.

“The art center will be an anchor to the north of Main Street,” Mayor Jim Silva said. “It’ll be something that will draw people to all the new stores and shops along Main Street.”

Long-range plans call for the city to make the art center and an existing branch library in the area into a cultural enclave, complete with a new plaza for outdoor band concerts.

The art center will have 11,000 square feet of space and three galleries for rotating displays.

“There will be no permanent collection (of art) in the center,” Mudd said. “We’ll be presenting contemporary works of living artists, in all media. And there will be thematic exhibitions that will be national, international and regional. One of the galleries will be used for one-person shows of emerging artists.”

The center also will host artistic film shows, performance art and lectures. Mudd said the facility will become a big aid to art education by being a resource for teachers.