‘Water Wall’ mural to be taken down as part of Anita Street lift station project

A Laguna Beach water quality department project plans to replace an aging sewer lift station at Anita Street and improve coastal access at that location.

The project will necessitate the removal of a mural created from tile, glass and handmade ceramics near the top of the beach access stairway. Francesca Zobek’s “Water Wall” has illustrated the ocean and marine life on a low wall adjacent to the Pacific Ocean in Laguna Beach since 2005.

Zobek donated her talents to create the work, while the city funded the materials at a cost of $1,500.

The lift station, which has collected wastewater between St. Ann’s and Calliope Streets, up to Temple Terrace, has been in its current location since 1950, when it replaced the original lift station built in 1932.

City officials noted that both the lift station and the beach access stairs at Anita Street are more than 70 years old and in deteriorating condition.

Francesca Zobek’s “Water Wall” mural was installed on a low block wall at Anita Street in 2005.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

A city resolution in 2004, a year before Zobek’s work was installed, established criteria for the deaccession of public art in Laguna Beach.

To move forward with that process, an artwork should require excessive or unreasonable maintenance, and a similar but superior example of the artist’s work should remain in the city’s collection. Laguna Beach Cultural Arts Manager Sian Poeschl noted Zobek has a larger mural on private property at Thalia Street.

“Water Wall” could have been relocated at a cost of $46,900, Amy Green of Silverlake Conservation, the city’s consultant, found upon review.

When the Laguna Beach Arts Commission met on June 27, the panel voted to have an alternative mural installed on the retaining wall of the new site. A design proposal showed the art mosaic would face the ocean near the top of the reconstructed beach access stairway.

In addition to construction of a new sewer lift station, the project will incorporate new viewing platforms and a permanent lifeguard tower. Construction is expected to begin in the fall of 2023.

The project will appear before the Planning Commission on Wednesday, at which time approval of the associated design review and coastal development permit will be considered along with the adoption of a mitigated negative declaration for the work.

Francesca Zobek’s “Water Wall,” a mural installed at Anita Street in 2005, depicted the ocean and marine life.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

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