Installation delayed of floating streetlight off Laguna’s Main Beach

Laguna Art Museum officials on Thursday postponed installation of a streetlight, made of fiberglass and foam, on the ocean 200 yards off Main Beach for the second time in as many days.

Engineers from the Newport Beach firm Morrelli & Melvin Design and Engineering, Inc., determined it would be unsafe to lift the streetlight into a vertical position without help from a crane stationed on an accompanying barge, museum communications director Cody Lee said.

The plan was for a boat to haul the streetlight from a Newport Beach boatyard and crews to lift it into position off the Laguna coast, but engineers called off the task Thursday before leaving Newport, Lee said.

The temporary installation, titled “Seascape” from artist Pablo Vargas Lugo, will be one of the main attractions of the museum’s fifth Art & Nature festival, which includes special exhibitions, lectures, panel discussions, films and family activities on the theme of art’s engagement with the natural world.

The festival begins Friday and runs through Sunday. Officials were trying to reserve a crane Thursday afternoon, Lee said.

The streetlight is attached to a buoy, which contains a 400-pound ballast. The buoy will be anchored by chains that descend to the ocean floor.

“We’re learning a lot this week,” Lee said. “There is no manual for installing a streetlight on the ocean.”

Lugo developed the idea based on Laguna’s artistic reputation and its place in the modern world.

“The piece acknowledges the origins of Laguna Beach as a haven for plein air painters and its character as a city whose imagination remains firmly set on the seas in spite of the vast urban sprawl of Southern California,” Lugo said in a statement. “The ever-changing seascape and a familiar element of urban infrastructure and growth, the streetlight, will come together, pinpointing a small section of the ocean as a seascape under observation and reminding viewers of the shifting conditions under which development and our future are taking form.”

Once in position, the streetlight will rise 40 feet above the ocean’s surface, contain two solar panels and a 120-watt LED light, according to a city staff report.

Sunlight powers a battery, which fuels the light. The light comes on by a timer and turns off when the power runs out, Lee said. The light is expected to stay on until 9:30 p.m. most nights.

The streetlight was supposed to be installed Wednesday, but Art & Nature officials postponed it in anticipation of calmer ocean conditions, Lee said.

Museum officials contacted the U.S. Coast Guard and California Department of Fish and Wildlife about the installation and learned they did not need permits from those agencies, city planner Anthony Viera told Laguna Beach planning commissioners during their Oct. 18 meeting.

Commissioners unanimously granted the museum a temporary use permit for the installation.

“I never thought I’d see a streetlight where it should not be, but I’m looking forward to seeing it,” Commissioner Roger McErlane said.

Organizers also received the OK from the California Coastal Commission for the streetlight to be on display through Nov. 16, which satisfies criteria for a temporary event permit, Laguna Community Development Director Greg Pfost said Wednesday.

In prior years the museum did not need Coastal Commission approval for the installations because they were placed on the sand, which falls within the city’s jurisdiction, Pfost confirmed.

People may try to swim out to the streetlight, Marine Safety Chief Kevin Snow told planning commissioners, adding that members of his staff will monitor the area around the streetlight.

The installation is one of several aspects of the festival, which remains on schedule, Lee said.

This year’s event connects with the museum’s current exhibition, “California Mexicana: Missions To Murals, 1820-1930.”

Lugo’s artwork has been shown throughout the U.S., Europe, South America and Mexico, according to the art museum’s website.

His solo exhibitions include “micromegas,” at the Museo Amparo, Puebla and the Museo Tamayo in Mexico City; “Intemperie” at the Museo Experimental El Eco in Mexico City; “Eclipses for Austin” at the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas; and “Contemporary Projects” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

For more information and updates on the “Seascape” installation, visit lagunaartmuseum.org.

If You Go

What: Laguna Art Museum’s fifth Art & Nature festival

When: Friday through Sunday (“Seascape” will be on display through Nov. 16)

Where: Laguna Art Museum, 307 Cliff Drive, and Main Beach

Cost: Varies, depending on the event. Check lagunaartmuseum.org for details, or call (949) 494-8971. Viewing of “Seascape” is free.

Art & Nature festival events

In Person: Pablo Vargas Lugo – 7 p.m. Friday. Lugo discusses his work, including creation of his commissioned piece “Seascape” for Art & Nature.

California Mexicana: Land Into Landscape – 2 p.m. Saturday. Panel discussion with California Mexicana curators Katherine Manthorne and Alberto Nulman, Seascape artist Pablo Vargas Lugo, and historian Steven Hackel. Moderated by Malcolm Warner.

Film: “Through the Repellent Fence” – 4 p.m. Saturday. The documentary follows art collective Postcommodity as it constructs “Repellent Fence,” a 2-mile-long outdoor artwork that straddled the U.S.-Mexico border.

Art & Nature Keynote: William Deverell – 7 p.m. Saturday. Renowned California historian and author of “Whitewashed Adobe” delivers the Art & Nature 2017 keynote lecture.

Art & Nature Family Festival – 2 p.m. Sunday. Art, nature and science activities for all ages.

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Twitter: @AldertonBryce