Solar Web May Be Unraveling

Carolanne Sudderth
Mirror Staff Writer

For fifteen years, the Solar Web has loomed on the horizon, waiting to cast its sun dial shadows.
   If last Thursday’s meeting of the Recreation and Parks Commission was any indication, public opinion may cast the future of the proposed structure into the shade and off the beach, if not out of the ballpark.
   Created by environmental artist Nancy Holt, the Solar Web is the latest, largest and last of the series of sculptures on the beach that began with the singing chairs and the giant cement roller, “Art Tool.”
After listening to nine speakers, the Rec and Parks commissioners voted 5 to 1 to call one more public hearing prior to taking it to the City Council on August 17 for the official go-ahead. The hearing will be held on August 4. The hour and venue have yet to be determined.
   Of the nine speakers, the two proponents both spoke for the Santa Monica Arts Commission which devised the Natural Elements Sculpture Park (NES Park) and commissioned the sculptures. Alice Fellows is now an Arts Commissioner and Bruria Finkel was an Arts Commissioner and now holds a seat on the Rent Control Board. She has been the principal spokesperson and advocate of NES Park from its inception.
   The other seven speakers spoke against Solar Web, alleging, variously, that the large sculpture is dangerous, a liability, vastly over budget, and has no place on the beach.
   Fellows was unfazed by the criticism.
   “It’s in the nature of public art to cause controversy. The Solar Web is an extraordinary and important work of art by an extraordinary and important artist.”
   Bob Friday said that he “loved” the Solar Web but opposed the location. “Our beach is also an important piece by an important artist, he said. Friday sits on the Board of Directors of Sea Colony One, the condominium complex directly across the street from the proposed sculpture site.
   Finkel said that the sculpture would not interfere with anyone’s enjoyment of Santa Monica’s most popular feature. “It isn’t going to obstruct the area on the beach. It’s going to enhance it.”
Friday said that he didn’t need to see the setting sun entangled in the Solar Web.
   An open framework of black metal tubing, the Solar Web describes an area 52 feet wide and 72 feet long and steps its way up from two feet to 16 feet tall. An 8 1/2-foot circle representing the sun is held sixteen feet above the ground by upside down L’s that rise from the ground like spiders’ legs, straight and vertical for 16 feet, then turning horizontal to the structure’s center where they become the “sun’s” rays.
   Directly below the solar circle, an 18-inch high platform mirrors the size and shape of the circle above it. It and three four- foot concrete discs standing half out of the sand are the slates on which sun and shadow mark the passage of time.
   “It tells you the time of day, equinox, solstice, and inverted eclipse once a year.” Finkel said.
   She and Fellows believe that the sculpture will serve as a gateway to Santa Monica. The seven detractors, argued that it was dangerous and “an attractive nuisance,” claiming that its jungle gym-like open framework would tempt children (and perhaps some adults)to climb on it.
   “Children will climb it, children will fall, and children will get hurt.” Bob Gabriel, a former council member told the commission.
His sentiments were echoed by Friday,
   “Some enterprising young person is going to say, ‘That looks like a challenge.”
   “And I don’t think this is going to have a sign on it that says, ‘Wear your helmet.’”
   City staff said that the safety questions had been addressed and dealt with.
   “We’ve met with the City Attorney and with Risk Management, and they have determined that this is not going to be climbed,” said Barbara Stinchfield, Santa Monica’s director of community and cultural affairs. “The 5 1/2-inch pipes are too large for a child to grasp.”
   Gabriel said that his granddaughter climbs trees with diameters much bigger than 5 1/2 inches.
   In a prepared statement, Jean Ann Holbrook wrote that the city’s     Technical Look Committee had also recommended that the sharp edges of the half circles be rounded off, and the 18-inch platform be topped with 6 inches of neoprene rubber.
   Zena Josephs, Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District didn’t think that was sufficient to prevent an accident. “Pole vaulters [who vault] to16-feet land on 4-foot [tall] inflated mattresses. Not 18 inches of neoprene.”
   She said that from that height, it didn’t matter so much what kids landed on as how they landed. And that a child’s broken arm was worth $1 million in liability.
   A personal injury attorney, Rosario Perry said, he has dealt with the sort of lawsuit that would result from a fall.
   He labeled the Solar Web as an “attractive nuisance,” and said that in those cases financial responsibility falls to the party that built it, “even if the child is trespassing. Whether or not they hit the sand is irrelevant.” As a self-insured entity, Santa Monica could be liable for $1 million before insurance kicked in..
   Perry said he wanted to go on record as stating the Solar Web is a jungle gym “Risk management says it’s unsafe for children, but it looks just like [a jungle gym] and, in fact, has been represented as one for the past 10 years.”
   Holbrook expanded on Perry’s statements with chapter and verse as she read excerpts from city documents that supported his statements.
   “A staff report to City Council dated Dec. 10, 1985 stated that ‘works must be safe, touchable, climbable and not interfere with the view of the ocean or the use of the beach.,”
   Two passages from the Local Coastal Art Plan which was approved by the Recreation and Parks Commission in July, 1993, mandated that “all sculpture treatments will be safe and accessible.”
   As recently as 1996, she said, Santa Monica’s Coastal Commission application stated that ‘the public would be allowed to climb on Solar Web (sic) like a jungle gym,’”
   Holbrook urged the commission not to wait “until someone is hurt before something is doe to prevent it.”
   Peter Davidson said that the Solar Web would become a camp city for the homeless. “Solar web is a giant tent structure. People will toss towels over it [and make tents].” And with them, he said, will come graffiti, dogs and trash.
   “And there’s no indication that the police will offer any additional protection.”
   Commissioner Neil Carrey questioned the cost of the structure which has risen from under $100,000 when it was originally proposed to $270,000 today. “It’s very troubling for me to see this kind of money go into one art piece. I’d like to go on record that I think it’s wrong for this not to come back to us.”
Like everything else, the price of Solar Web has risen in the past 15 years, Hamp Simmons, an administrative analyst in Cultural Affairs, said.
   According to Holbrook, the city agreed to fund three artworks in 1984, the price of any one of which was not to exceed $22,500. Two of these, the singing chairs and art tool, have been in place on the Santa Monica beach for some years.
   Simmons said the original budget was for $75,000 in 1984, $50,000 of which was contributed by Southmark Corporation and $25,000 of which came from the city’s Per Cent for Art fund.
Simmons said that after the earthquake, an additional $100,000 was allotted to making sure the structure was capable of withstanding anything seismic in origin. “It was probably safe before,” Simmons said, “but they wanted to make it was totally safe.”
   The rest of [the increase] is in the difference in what things cost. The total cost of the structure is currently listed at $270,000, Simmons said. The Lannan Foundation has added $75,000 to the $50,000 contributed by Southmark. The city’s share of the bill has increased from $25,000 to $145,000.
   There are more cons than pros, Gabriel told the Commission.
“[The price of the Solar Web] has gone [increased], and we don’t know where it’s going. And as a self-insured city we’re on the hook for at least a million dollars.”
   “It’s not often that we get a second chance,” he said.