Mall Gets Ready for a Rock-Solid Start

Developer Scott Bell envisioned a 20-acre, $30-million project at the Centre on Seventeenth strip mall in Santa Ana.

Don Cribb, founder of the city’s Artists Village, pictured a place for art.

The result of their two visions came together Thursday as a 20-ton, 17-foot-high marble sculpture was installed at the soon-to-be-completed mall at 17th and Tustin streets.

“I wanted something natural, spiritual, right in the middle of a commercial center,” said Cribb, who first approached Bell with the proposal.

Cribb became the project’s art consultant, then chose a design by Fullerton artist Steve Metzger.

The sculpture is a single piece of rectangular rock with shades of light orange, pink and ivory. A few veins of dark-colored stone also run through the rock. Three concrete pylons, almost 15 feet high, will be added later.

While the piece is almost overshadowed by nearby stores, Cribb said it still makes a statement.

“There aren’t many things this large,” he said.

The rock erected Thursday was the second attempt at finding the right material for the sculpture. Cribb and others first traveled to Arizona to buy a stone, but that piece cracked after they brought it back to California.

Bell said his costs for labor and materials for the project are about $50,000. But he said the money is well spent because it fulfills an opportunity to bring arts to the city and improve business. “We’re trying to give people a reason to stay there,” he said. “And the longer they stay there, the more business is done.”