{"id":238334,"date":"2016-03-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-04T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/saving-horton-plaza-park\/"},"modified":"2016-03-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-03-04T08:00:00","slug":"saving-horton-plaza-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/saving-horton-plaza-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Salvar el parque Horton Plaza"},"content":{"rendered":"

Por Ann Jarmusch | Cuestiones de preservaci\u00f3n<\/p>\n

When a construction fence comes down this month, the Horton Plaza Park fountain \u2014 one of Downtown San Diego\u2019s gems \u2014 will be a bit closer to its long-awaited reawakening\u00a0this spring.<\/p>\n

Horton Plaza Park, at Fourth Avenue and Broadway, and its iconic domed fountain, tell a compelling preservation story that has stretched beyond a century, embracing decades of change, growth and public celebrations.<\/p>\n

Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO), San Diego\u2019s leading preservation advocacy group, has saved the fountain not once, but three times since its founding in 1969. Initially working behind the scenes with city staff, SOHO ensured the park became Historic Site No. 51 in 1971, and continues its watchdog role for this unique landmark\u2019s future, which is looking brighter than it has in years.<\/p>\n

\"HortonPlazaCoonsCollectionwebtop\"<\/a>
An aerial view of Horton Plaza Park, c. 1910s, with its signature queen palm trees and the U.S. Grant Hotel, from a hand-painted glass lantern slide (Courtesy Coons Collection)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That\u2019s because the park and fountain are currently being restored to their historic 1910 appearance, as designed by noted San Diego architect Irving J. Gill.<\/p>\n

Gill based the neo-classical fountain design on the ancient Greek Choragic Monument of Lysicrates in Athens and made it the centerpiece of hallowed park ground set aside in 1870-71 by Alonzo Horton, the father of New Town San Diego.<\/p>\n

The bronze and marble fountain stands opposite the Broadway entrance to the 1910 U.S. Grant Hotel. On the hotel\u2019s opening night, owner (and future mayor) Louis J. Wilde unveiled the $10,000 fountain he\u2019d had inscribed \u201cBroadway Fountain for the People.\u201d<\/p>\n

This civic gift was also an engineering feat: the first fountain to combine flowing water and electricity. The electricity powered scores of changeable colored lights that turned plumes of water into a nocturnal spectacle.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s park restoration is part of, but distinct from, an expansion of public space between it and Westfield\u2019s Horton Plaza retail center. Instead of a blocky Robinson\u2019s-May department store, which had once hemmed in the park and crowded historic buildings around it, visitors will soon enjoy programmed open space, including an amphitheater and food and ticket pavilions, along with reclaimed urban vistas.<\/p>\n

Although the city has grown up around Horton Plaza Park, the overbearing store\u2019s demolition enhances the plaza\u2019s visibility and access.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the nicest things is that four historic buildings surround the park on all sides,\u201d said Bruce Coons, SOHO\u2019s executive director, who advised Westfield to ensure an accurate restoration.<\/p>\n

For the first time in decades, for example, the fountain\u2019s bronze-and-prismatic-glass dome will be in sight of the restored, historic Balboa Theatre\u2019s tiled dome on Fourth Avenue. Cleaned, stabilized and completely restored, the fountain\u2019s white marble and bronze eagle and domes will gleam by day, and its new, energy-efficient LED lights will dazzle by night. Light posts topped with globes (added around 1916-18) and long-missing urns are being replicated for the park, while monuments to be reinstalled include a 1985 plaque commending SOHO\u2019s preservation action on the park\u2019s 75th anniversary and rededication.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe key to this project is open space, civic space, so the park becomes a socially significant part of San Diego again,\u201d said Curtis Drake, of Heritage Architecture & Planning.<\/p>\n

Drake described the combination of the historic park alongside the paved expansion, where Westfield plans to host 200 events each year, as \u201ca whole different approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

A new era has arrived and preservationists helped us keep sight of the value of a beloved public place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason SOHO saved Horton Plaza Park and its fountain is for this day,\u201d Coons said. \u201cSo it would be honored and cherished, restored and used.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014Ann Jarmusch representa a SOHO. Puede comunicarse con ella al 619-200-3340 o por correo electr\u00f3nico a <\/em>ajarmusch@gmail.com<\/em><\/a>. Para obtener m\u00e1s informaci\u00f3n sobre SOHO, visite sohosandiego.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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