Laguna Beach May Move Fountain

As Laguna Beach struggles to keep the Festival of the Arts from moving to San Clemente, the city is looking to rid itself of another, less popular piece of public art: the water sculpture in front of City Hall.

It’s never been among the more popular pieces of artwork in the arty town, this 12-foot inverted cone that splashes water onto a tiny walled-in area. It’s never worked right. Since the fountain was installed eight years ago, popular opinion seems to have ranged from “Get it out of here” to “It’s a good place to wash off your sandy feet.”

Now, the City Council is taking steps to move the fountain somewhere else. The council has asked its arts commission to come back with ideas. And outside the city might be just fine.

“I’m not crazy about it, obviously,” said Councilman Paul Freeman, who brought the issue before the council. “I can’t see it working aesthetically--apart from the fact that it’s not working literally--where it is.”

Many locals agree.

“It’s an eyesore,” said Kenny Quigley, manager of Cedar Creek Inn, a restaurant in a French country-style building across from the fountain. “It just doesn’t fit the charm of Laguna.”

“None of us ever liked it,” said Janet Koelle, a Laguna Beach resident who walks down Forest Avenue regularly. “I mean, they paid so much money for this thing, it’s ridiculous.”

If the sculpture is moved, the city will have to replace it with different artwork because of a 1980s city ordinance that requires art--worth 1% of construction costs--to accompany commercial and government buildings. If art is not installed, the equivalent amount of money has to go into a fund for other city art projects.

In 1991, the City Council spent about $27,000 for the steel, bronze-plated sculpture, “Synectic Falls,” by Tom Askman of Spokane, Wash. Askman, who was not available for comment, placed a small plaque by the fountain that praises Laguna Beach for its “exuberant” support of the arts.

With installation, water pump repairs, a retaining wall and maintenance so far, the total rings in at about $40,000.

“I don’t think people realized what it was going to be like,” said former Councilwoman Ann Christoph, a landscape artist who voted against the sculpture in 1991.

Aside from aesthetic and cost concerns, the fountain just never worked the way it was supposed to. The water that cascades from the top of the larger, inverted cone is supposed to hit a groove in the smaller cone and produce a small stream. But the water pressure is too low to reach the smaller cone or to create the planned arc of water for people to walk beneath without getting splashed.

Not that the fountain is totally without fans.

“I like it. It’s beautiful,” said Caroline Chevee, a visiting law student from Paris who was enjoying a meal on the patio of the Cedar Creek Inn last week.

For years, beach-goers have washed off their sandy feet in it. And the grandchildren of former Mayor Lida Lenney enjoy playing in the fountain. Lenney voted for the piece back in 1991.