With complaints ranging from drainage problems to lack of privacy and foul odors, residents are taking a mostly wait-and-see attitude toward how repairs go with La Jolla Cove’s new 1,500-square-foot, $5 million shower and restroom pavilion.

“I am aware of and have been working with the director of the City’s Engineering and Capital Projects Department and the mayor’s office to swiftly rectify the privacy and water-runoff issues at Scripps Park pavilion,” said District 1 Councilmember Joe LaCava, who represents La Jolla.

In March 2017, La Jolla Parks & Beaches, Inc, a civic group making land-use recommendations to the City on coastal parks, overwhelmingly approved updated plans for the pavilion-comfort station at Scripps Park. The La Jolla Cove Pavilion was a long-term project to replace outdated and deteriorating restroom-shower facilities with an attractive, sustainable pavilion honoring the beauty of the Cove and Scripps Park.

Of the newly completed pavilion, Bob Evans, president of La Jolla Parks & Beaches said once construction fences came down in late January on the project, “that we could immediately see a number of issues that should have been addressed or cleared early on in the project phase.”

According to Evans, overlooked facility flaws include:

• Sight-line straight from the sidewalk and street and park into the women’s and men’s change rooms. Our latest report is the City says at least another couple of months until new ‘privacy partitions’ can be installed. Meanwhile, local swimmers installed a couple of $10 shower curtains, but they get torn down.
• The outdoor shower drains function poorly and seems to easily clog up, and water runs onto the new lawn causing a couple of new muddy swamp areas.
• Many areas of the new landscaping are poorly thought out to support high foot traffic and are now trampled or dying.
• The large front lawn is quite yellowed and looks half-dead already. Lawns have not thrived and have died in previous attempts. But we hope this install can be successful.
• There’s going to be a fix-it list of items with any new project like this, and the City has addressed many. The list includes functioning door locks, stocked with more toilet paper, adjusting water pressure, and improving the view corridor in the park by moving large obstructing control panels.

“I really enjoy the open architecture,” said Evans about the pavilion, pointing out that a lot of thought went into the details of its design, such as the initial vision, materials, color, texture, and the facilities itself.

“The new pavilion should stand to serve for the next 50-plus years as a center point to Scripps Park and the Cove,” concluded Evans, noting the area receives “well over a million visitors a year and is the most photographed spot in San Diego.”

Added Evans: “Altogether, the new pavilion is extremely well-received, and was a long-time coming for the community and visitors. Our frustrations stem from the seemingly lack or shortage of community feedback during the construction phases, as to how the visitors and community actually use and experience the area. It is taking a long time for the City to attend to some of the issues like the open view into change rooms. And we hope that the high-traffic lawn and landscaping area will thrive and survive as the increase of summer visitors descend on the park.”

Other La Jollans weighed in on the new pavilion and its problems.

Phyllis Minick was mostly upbeat – and hopeful – that the project’s flaws can be rectified in a timely manner.

“The E.B Scripps Park Pavillion is a stunning addition to our La Jolla shoreline,” Minick said. “Like many, perhaps most, new constructions, it has some structural and supply problems. Most of them will certainly be addressed by the contractors and maintenance services. Leaks into the surrounding lawn have been destructive but can and will be repaired. Those of us who used the former facility experienced decay, leaks, filth, and an insufficient number of toilets (which were often clogged).

“In contrast, the present building reflects current architectural styling, and design work by highly respected professionals, as well as enlarged numbers of showers and stalls,” continued Minick. “So, in a community afflicted with homelessness, overwhelmingly in need of road repairs, and desperate for new streetlights, let’s give this new structure some time for upgrades.”

Community activist Melinda Merryweather feels the project’s design is too contemporary. She would have preferred something more in keeping with the look and feel of the community and its roots.

“It looks like a train or bus station in Chicago,” Merryweather said. “I wished its design would have looked more like Casa Manana (nearby retirement center) or the Green Dragon (historic La Jolla art colony). It would have been nice if it looked more nostalgic, more La Jolla.”