Moorpark Hopes Project Sculpts Residents’ Opinion on Public Art

Moorpark officials hope installation of a new waterscape--the largest piece of public art in the city--will bring a touch of tranquillity to their town and set the tone for future municipal art projects.

Work began last week on a $100,000 rock-and-water sculpture for the entrance to Mountain Meadows Plaza, a shopping center across from Moorpark High School, on the southwest corner of Tierra Rejada Road and Mountain Trail Street. The 10-foot-tall edifice will include a rocky face and a waterfall cascading into a pond.

“This is sort of a cornerstone one, if you’ll pardon the pun,” said Hugh Riley, Moorpark’s assistant city manager.

When the 120,000-square-foot retail center was built in 1997, developers were required to put money into a fund for public art. But an initial design suggested by the developer was rejected, Mayor Pro Tem Clint Harper said.

“Some of the City Council members kind of hated that design,” Harper said. “It looked like giant fronds of some type . . . with large vertical elements. It was not particularly attractive.”

Riley described the original suggestion as an “abstract, silly-looking” work. “It just didn’t fit.”

“The city of Moorpark is very particular about the way things look. We want to present the community in a nice, coordinated perspective,” he said.

So the city sought new design suggestions and approved the rock fountain.

“I’ve got a large one in my backyard,” Harper said. “They kind of soften the urban landscape.”

Harper said he plans to suggest that the city add a memorial plaque to the fountain to commemorate the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The completed sculpture will provide “a nice, tranquil setting,” said Bill Brooks, owner of Rock Designs Pools and Waterscapes Inc. The Woodland Hills company designed and is building the fountain. “The city is hoping people will kind of hang out. It’s just a public works project that will probably draw people to it.”

The stones in the sculpture will be reinforced concrete made to resemble real rock, Brooks said. The faux rocks will be cast from molds Brooks has of interesting rocks he has come across in California and Arizona.

“It’s costly to make molds, so you don’t want to make any old, boring rock,” he said. “It can look very real, and the touch and feel of it is very real. If it’s done poorly, it looks like a bunch of potatoes.”

Depending on the winter weather, the waterscape project is expected to be completed by April 1, Riley said.

The public art fund will have nearly $100,000 when the project is finished, and a citizens committee will review future public art projects for placement around the city.

Moorpark already has several works of art, but most have come from private companies, Harper said.

“Most of what we see around town has not been done at the city’s initiative,” he said.

Public art can provide a welcome break to visual monotony, Harper said.

“Even a well-designed city looks like it was designed for cars, not people,” he said. “[Art is] an investment that pays off. Cities that do that become places that people want to live. It makes the city look like a community.”