On June 29, the Dominguez family \u2014 Jesus, Mary Lynn and daughter Amy \u2014 will join the city in celebrating the opening of The Lookout, a pocket park they designed to celebrate the city\u2019s centennial.<\/p>\n
The Lookout was born out of a design contest put on by the city to create something special for the corner of La Mesa Boulevard and Allison Avenue for the city\u2019s centennial in 2012. The $165,000 project was almost entirely funded through donations raised during and after the centennial celebrations.<\/p>\n
The goal of the design contest was to \u201chire an artist to fathom a project that would honor the city\u2019s history, its past, present and future,\u201d said Yvonne Garrett, assistant city manager and director of community service.<\/p>\n People from all over the world applied for the design contest, Garrett said, but it was the Dominguez design that the city found most appealing.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were the only home-towners so I think we had a bit of an advantage because we knew what it was like down here,\u201d Mary Lynn said.<\/p>\n The winning design was a gazebo structure with tile mosaics that would tell the story of La Mesa\u2019s history.<\/p>\n \u201cWe chose a gazebo because it is a typical, traditional center of the town kind of structure,\u201d Mary Lynn said. \u201cIt seemed like a good place to start.\u201d<\/p>\n Another feature in the pocket park is a small bronze sculpture of a snail that Jesus made.<\/p>\n \u201cWe proposed the snail because it is part of the history,\u201d he said. \u201cThey discovered the Helix espersum here in the mid-1800s and we thought it would be cool to do a snail. At the presentation, the former Mayor Art Madrid asked \u2018Why are you putting a snail in there?\u2019 Not too many people know the history.\u201d<\/p>\n La Mesa\u2019s history is also represented in the intricate mosaics on the colorful gazebo. \u201cThe man who put in the tile, he was trained in Italy so he knows all the tricks and old ways of doing things,\u201d Jesus said.<\/p>\n After consulting with La Mesa Historical Society president Jim Newland and reading his books on La Mesa, the artists picked out a few events from history to highlight, including La Mesa\u2019s beginnings and early settlers; the city\u2019s agricultural heritage; its historical place in the early film industry with the Flying A Studio; the accomplishments of local Colt, Pony and Little League Baseball teams that won championships; and the city\u2019s traditional celebrations of Oktoberfest and the Flag Day parade.<\/p>\n Even the name of the project has historical significance.<\/p>\n \u201cOur daughter thought of the name \u2018The Lookout\u2019 because La Mesa Boulevard used to be called Lookout Avenue,\u201d Mary Lynn said. \u201cSo there is this idea of people being able to say, \u2018Meet me at The Lookout.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Although the finished park has kept to mostly to the original design, there have been some changes. Park benches have replaced the initial concept of a concrete seat wall around the gazebo. Trees were also part of the design but were nixed after a water main was discovered running under the site.<\/p>\n Jim Simpson, owner of Time and Treasures on La Mesa Boulevard, along with the non-profit La Mesa Beautiful, donated an $8,400 Glenna model clock that was not part of the Dominguz\u2019 design but now sits next to the snail.<\/p>\n Also, a tiled obelisk was added to have a place to put a plaque of donor names, which couldn\u2019t be put on the gazebo because the names would be too low a height read, Mary Lynn said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe gazebo itself is six-sided with three open ends so it seemed a triangle [obelisk] kind of had a relationship to it,\u201d she said. \u201cBut it was done because there had to be someplace to put names.\u201d<\/p>\n The final piece to the park will be added on at the official opening of The Lookout on June 29 at 6 p.m. when the city will cut the ribbon and lower a time capsule beneath a stainless steel plaque at the center of the gazebo.<\/p>\n The location will be an easy landmark to help future historians find it, which was not the case with the last time capsule La Mesa put in the ground. During the 2012 centennial celebration, no one was able to find the one buried near City Hall in 1962. Garrett thinks that construction that enlarged the front of the building was the cause of the missing time capsule.<\/p>\n![\"IMG_9265webtop\"](\"https:\/\/lamesacourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/IMG_9265webtop.jpg\")
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walls of the gazebo. (Photo by Jeff Clemetson)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n