Rebirth of a Landmark : Redondo Beach Pier Begins Its Return From Ashes Next Month When Rebuilding Bids Are Sought

Strolling on the Redondo Beach Pier recently, Ricardo Felan was telling his girlfriend that the place seemed run-down compared to the last time he visited, in 1981. Then he stopped and eyed a storm-ravaged row of wooden pilings nearby.

“Oh yeah, now I remember--(the pier) used to go all the way around,” he said.

It has been nearly five years since Redondo Beach’s once-famed horseshoe pier was devastated by two storms and a fire, long enough that some visitors forget what it used to look like. But next month, city officials plan to start the pier’s rebirth, seeking bids for a $9.5-million reconstruction project that would start this spring and be completed by 1996.

The rebuilt pier will be markedly different--and city officials hope, more appealing--than its predecessor. Whereas the old horseshoe-shaped quay was laden with heavy, view-blocking buildings, the new V-shaped pier will contain fewer structures, providing broad ocean vistas.

And if the old wood pier reminded visitors of a rickety barge, the new concrete-and-steel structure is meant to evoke the feel of a sailing ship, complete with copper awnings resembling spinnakers.

The long-awaited project--being financed mainly by the city with help from county, state and federal sources--has weathered its share of controversy. It has been delayed by persistent arguments over everything from the architect’s nearly $600,000 bill to whether the pier should be rebuilt at all.

But the reconstructed pier is expected to become a major tourist attraction for the region, boosting tourism in Redondo’s harbor area--now 7 million visitors a year--by 10%. That excites local government and business leaders. Officials say the new pier will create more than 100 permanent local jobs and generate rental fees and tax revenues for the city amounting to more than $300,000 a year.

“The pier has always been an important part of our historical identity in Redondo Beach,” Harbor Director Ray Koke said. “It’s a vital economic engine for the community and one of our major recreational resources for sportfishing and . . . just enjoying the coastline.”

The horseshoe pier absorbed its first of three devastating blows in January, 1988, when an Arctic storm generating 20-foot waves took a chunk out of its western curve. Repairs had barely begun when a second storm struck in April. Winds of up to 52 m.p.h. and massive waves snapped the pier’s pilings in half and tossed them against the decking. A coffee shop kitchen dropped into the ocean and the fishing promenade was demolished.

The next month, a fire sparked by an electrical wire under a pier restaurant wrought the final devastation. The midsection of the horseshoe’s decking and 15 businesses--a third of the pier’s total equaling 65,000 square feet of commercial space--went up in flames.

At first, the City Council promised to rebuild the venerable landmark, which had graced the coastline since 1926. But a public meeting two months after the fire revealed deep divisions in the community about the pier.

Some residents said they favored rebuilding. But others, especially those who lived in a nearby condominium development, said they were thrilled the pier had burned down because it had been drawing traffic, crime and gang members to the beach community.

The debate raged for months until a council majority was elected in March, 1989, that promised to put the issue before voters.

But delays still plagued the project.

There was a court fight when the company that owned the leasehold on the portion of the pier that burned down filed a lawsuit to force the city to rebuild. A judge eventually ruled in favor of the leaseholder. Voters in March, 1991, also cast their ballots overwhelmingly in favor of rebuilding.

Sensitive to the concerns of critics, the City Council tried to win consensus by sponsoring a “Design Your Own Pier Contest.” City officials also sent out a design survey and staged three public hearings on the matter, out of which architect Edward Carson Beall came up with three design styles: Mediterranean, Victorian and wharf.

In the end, the City Council rejected all three designs, asking Beall instead to come up with something unique. Beall’s proposal, eventually approved by the council, calls for a nautical design intended to summon images of ships and boats.

Guardrails will be made of wood and steel cable to evoke a ship’s railing. Lampposts will look like the tops of lighthouses. And life-size renderings of ocean creatures will be sandblasted into the concrete decking to give visitors a sense that they are glimpsing sea animals below.

Plaques describing the history of the pier and some of the sea life in local waters will make the pier seem like a museum, Beall said.

The new pier, built on concrete pilings rather than wood pilings, is also designed to withstand large earthquakes and 27-foot waves, City Engineer Desi Alvarez said.

“This pier will be around longer than I will,” Alvarez said. “It is going to be as sound a structure as you can design and build today. It’s state of the art.”

Leaseholder Stephen Shoemaker Jr., who has one year to develop the leasehold after the pier is completed, expects to put up three structures: a 3,600-square-foot building that will contain retail shops and possibly a restaurant, a 7,000-square-foot building that will house a restaurant, and an 11,000-square-foot building that will contain a carousel and either a public aquarium or a wax museum.

Shoemaker says he has spoken to restaurateur Wolfgang Puck and other prospective tenants but has not received any formal commitments.

Although city officials took pains to ensure that residents would be involved in the reconstruction planning, the rebuilding effort has drawn its share of criticism.

Earlier this year, council members were shocked to learn that Beall’s bill had climbed to $573,000. And Harbor Commission Chairman Rick Abelson, who is running for the City Council, has questioned the lack of restrooms and public telephones on the rebuilt portion of the pier.

There has also been squabbling over the kind of businesses Shoemaker plans to attract to the pier and how the surviving section--which includes several restaurants, a fish market and souvenir shops--will be integrated with the rebuilt portion.

Councilwoman Barbara J. Doerr, who is running for reelection, is worried that if a wax museum were built, it would create a carnival-like atmosphere on the pier.

Robert D. Resnick, a leaseholder on the surviving portion of the pier, is concerned that the reconstruction project will fail unless the city also helps him refurbish the building he leases from the city.

“You can’t put a face lift on half of your face and leave the other half looking the way it used to,” he said.

Meanwhile, 57-year-old Ron Gordon, an out-of-work landscaper who fishes off the pier and lunches there several times a week, is worried that the rebuilt pier will be too pricey for low-income visitors.

“If they turn this into a rich man’s haven, what are the poor people going to do for entertainment?” Gordon asked. “A lot of these people are here fishing to eat. They have nowhere else to go.”

Few expect such concerns to derail the pier reconstruction effort, however.

“It’s taken a little longer than it should have because we had a number of public hearings throughout the city,” said Mayor Brad Parton, who was among the project’s staunchest supporters. “But I think we’re coming up with something very nice.”

Pier Plan Configuration of the new Redondo Beach Pier envisioned by city officials. Plans call for the new pier to be built by 1996.