_{Cultural Center concept art designed by Greenworks Planning Consultants architect Ben Johnson, courtesy of Crescent City.}

Crescent City councilors applauded the friendlier Cultural Center architect Ben Johnson and his team at Greenworks Planning Consultants presented them on Monday.

Johnson’s vision removes the second of two staircases and adds a walkway that takes visitors to an entry plaza. But rather than incorporating a Tolowa basket pattern into the entry plaza — a proposed introduction to the interpretive walk at neighboring Beachfront Park — councilors wanted a design that represents the whole community.

“The entryway needs to be communicated that this is an entry point for all people,” Mayor Blake Inscore said. “None of this is meant to undermine or take away from the amazing work or this being the ancestral home of the Tolowa people. The point is we’re talking about an entryway going into a public building that’s for everyone, including people from all over the world.”

Councilors also asked what would become of Harley Munger’s hexagonal tile mosaic murals flanking the first stairway to the Cultural Center. Munger, who founded Piece by Piece Pottery with his wife Jill, is behind many of the murals on display throughout Crescent City including at the adjacent Fred Endert Municipal Swimming Pool.

The proposed entry plaza at the Cultural Center is the second component of a project being paid for with $3 million in Clean California Local Grant program dollars.

In addition to creating a gateway to Beachfront Park and Front Street, the project’s aim is to improve access to both the Cultural Center and the Point of Honor veterans monument as well as act as a starting point for the Tolowa Interpretive Walk. It will also tie into the Redwood Coast Transit Authority’s planned transit hub, according to the city’s staff report.

Johnson’s presentation on Monday came after Crescent City received 450 responses to a survey regarding the gateway monuments and directional signs at Front Street and U.S. 101, which is also being paid for through the same Clean California grant.

That survey is set to close next Monday, City Manager Eric Wier said. The City Council will decide on a gateway design at its Dec. 2 meeting. The Clean California grant money must be spent by June 30, 2026.

The Crescent City Cultural Gateway and Beautification Project is also part of a larger endeavor to turn the Cultural Center into a Discovery Center, which would bring visitor-facing services from Redwood National and State Parks, the Redwood Parks Conservancy and the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce under one roof.

The overall goal, Wier said, is for the nearly 52-year-old building to become a destination for visitors exploring Del Norte County.

“When we were working with Greenworks and their staff and we were taking walks around the park, one of their key takeaways is, my goodness, you have this absolutely gorgeous building that, if you look at the bones of it, would cost you $10-plus million to build today,” he said. “And yet, it seems out of place as far as its use.”

During a normal year, the city spends between $70,000 and $100,000 on the building’s upkeep, Wier said. He said he toured the site last week with the mayor, Public Works Director Dave Yeager and chamber executive director Cindy Vosburg.

Greenworks and their sub-consultant Sea Reach Ltd. are design consultants for the Beachfront Park development.

Crescent City is also working with the Tolowa Cultural Committee, which includes representatives of the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation, Elk Valley Rancheria and the Tolowa Nation, on the Tolowa interpretive trail, which is part of that Beachfront Park expansion.

On Monday, Johnson said there’s about 5 feet of elevation between Front Street and the second staircase leading to the Chamber of Commerce visitor center. The gateway and beautification project will improve the first stairway, while incorporating an accessible route that will either take visitors into the Cultural Center or to the Tolowa Interpretive Walk, he said. 

The Cultural Center plaza seeks to introduce visitors to the interpretive nodes and story they may experience if they decide to explore the interpretive walk, Johnson said. But he didn’t want to compete with it.

“We’re using a Tolowa pattern in the middle of that entry plaza and also using some of the metal vertical blades, but in a much smaller low-key way so it’s kind of an introduction to the material pallet that’s going to be there as you go through the Tolowa Interpretive Walk,” he said.

Removing the second set of stairs allows for a “nice open plaza” with interpretive panels that provides information on hiking opportunities, places to stay, local restaurants and activities when the facility is closed, Johnson said.

That first floor can also be integrated with the organizations that will live in the Cultural Center such as the chamber, which already operates a visitor center and gift shop, Johnson said.

The lead architect also offered what he called a “value engineering” option that would retain much of the existing concrete walls, allowing the city to save money, but sacrificing the grand entryway concept.

According to Wier, who showed the City Council Johnson’s conceptual designs, the first floor of the Cultural Center could probably house the chamber and gift shop, while the atrium and large “Cultural Center room” could be rented out for functions.

“There’s still the option of bringing in additional partners and seeing this vision come to a reality with the Redwood Parks Conservancy as well as state and national parks,” he said. “The overall design would incorporate more of that atrium piece and the large room could turn into more of an exhibit hall with a movie theater …”

Wier noted that the building’s current porte-cochére, the drive-through area underneath the Cultural Center, is dark and “not a very friendly experience when you’re coming in.”

As for the Tolowa basket pattern proposal for the Cultural Center entry plaza, Wier said he and his staff discussed the idea with the Tolowa Cultural Committee, who supported the plan. But Wier said the city would want the committee to decide what pattern would be appropriate.

Yet Inscore and Councilor Kelly Schellong-Feola said they’ve heard from constituents that don’t want the community’s history with logging and fishing to be left out of the Beachfront Park and gateway designs. Inscore thought back to the Council’s discussion about the gateway design and said maybe there’s a way to incorporate a basket pattern with a more nautical theme.

Feola wanted artwork to be included in the Cultural Center entryway.

“Harley Munger’s art pieces maybe would provide something that would outline a combination of the Tolowa history as well as our logging and fishing industries,” she said.

Inscore noted that there’s history associated with the Cultural Center itself, though the building is only 50 years old. He also said there might be a way to save the tile mosaic murals and urged staff to speak with Munger, but he said the concrete walls flanking the building do act as a barrier.

“Leaving those walls, while it may be a value engineering option, as far as I’m concerned … that defeats the whole purpose of this,” Inscore said, adding that residents recognize those concrete walls hinder access to the building. “We get one shot at a fresh slate and we need to take it in my opinion.”

A series of kiosks focusing on the community’s logging and fishing history will be a feature of the one-mile loop now under construction at the park, Wier said. He said the city would reach out to Munger to figure out a way to preserve his artwork.