La Jolla Shores\u2019 long-awaited cantilevered lifeguard tower drew rave reviews from city staff, public officials and local residents at an Oct. 11 open house.
\n“We\u2019re ecstatic to be in the new tower, which we\u2019ve been in since mid-June,” said Lifeguard Services Sgt. Ed Harris.
\n“Space,” replied Harris when asked what the biggest difference is between the new and old towers.
\nNoting the new tower has ample room for male and female lockers, restrooms and a modern kitchen, Harris said there\u2019s a separate storage facility now in the middle of the parking lot.
\n“We used to have equipment stored up by the high school on Nautilus,” he said. “We\u2019ve put it here in the garage. It\u2019s great.”
\nAssociate city engineer Jihad Sleiman, a liaison between the community and city on the project, said the new tower\u2019s design is as practical as it is aesthetically pleasing.
\n“The old boardwalk had a huge kink in it where bicyclists and skateboarders used to run into one another,” he said. “Look at it. It\u2019s so beautiful. So nice. It looks futuristic.”
\nAsked whether she missed the old high-rise tower, Shores resident Susan Goulian said, “Not at all. Here we have an unobstructed view and this tower, from the distance \u2014 you can\u2019t see it. They did a wonderful job.”
\nApproved by the city in 2002, it took years for the new Shores lifeguard tower to be funded. But it was all worth it, said all of the parties involved.
\nProject designers Rick Espana and Ralph Roesling from Roesling Nakamura Terada Architects, Inc., who were at the open house, talked about overcoming challenges in the tower\u2019s design.
\n“[The community] said, \u2018Make it disappear,\u2019 ” said Espana. “Obviously, we couldn\u2019t do that. So the next best thing was to go with a thin profile.”
\nRoesling discussed the architectural feat behind the tower.
\n“We wanted the scale to be more like a residence where you feel warmer,” said he said. “The idea of just making the stairs the tower allows you to make it very compact and almost transparent. The tower actually really floats at that point.”
\nThe tower, Espana said, is “unlike any other lifeguard station that\u2019s out there right now. We think the best part of it was opening up the park.”
\nThe project, Roesling said, was a pleasure for the architects, given all of its challenges.
\n“This was one of the most fun projects that we\u2019ve ever done in our office because of all the structural challenges, and getting in all the amenities that the lifeguards had to have,” said Roesling.\u00a0“It really was like dealing with a custom home, trying to get everything in the right place.”
\nSan Diego lifeguard Chief Rick Wurts stood a few hundred yards down from the new tower in the footprint of the old tower.
\n“If you go down the beach toward the water\u2019s edge and you look up, it really does disappear into the background,” he said.
\nWurts said the project is a win-win all around.
\n“It\u2019s great for the community,” he said. “It\u2019s great for the lifeguards, provides us a better vantage point for water observation. The way it sits out provides a better view corridor for the people who are here. Having the garage here is incredibly helpful. We look forward to this tower taking us into the future for many years.”<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
La Jolla Shores\u2019 long-awaited cantilevered lifeguard tower drew rave reviews from city staff, public officials and local residents at an Oct. 11 open house. “We\u2019re ecstatic to be in the new tower, which we\u2019ve been in since mid-June,” said Lifeguard Services Sgt. Ed Harris. “Space,” replied Harris when asked what the biggest difference is between […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":277060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"Shores lifeguard tower, a long time coming, opens to praise from community","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-277059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}