Festival of the Arts facade isn’t quite what it seems, demolition reveals

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “facade” as “the front of a building” or “a false, superficial, or artificial appearance or effect,” and when the sledgehammers began to pound the front of the Festival of Arts property Monday afternoon, both definitions felt appropriate.

At a brief ceremony outside the property that hosts the annual summer art show and Pageant of the Masters, one member of the festival board of directors after another — including Mayor Elizabeth Pearson — donned a hard hat, lifted a hammer from a long table and landed at least two or three blows on one side of the arched entrance.

The facade, which extends along the sidewalk on Laguna Canyon Road, has stood for 17 years, and its flinty elegance could pass for stucco and carved stone to a casual observer.

So it came as a shock when board member Pat Kollenda swung the first hammer Monday and scattered tiny white dots across the pavement below.

The venerable-looking structure actually consists of foam and plywood, and by the time the last blow had sounded, it revealed itself as a sleight of hand as intricate as the living tableaux that the pageant produces every summer.

“I’m so excited,” Kollenda said, wielding her hammer and sliding on safety goggles to fend off the debris. “I’ve wanted to do this for years.”

The new facade, planned for completion next spring in time for the summertime art festivities, will feature metal cutouts of trees as well as banners that reflect the current pageant theme. In lieu of the previous foam and plywood, the new structure will be made primarily of recycled materials such as copper and zinc. The City Council unanimously approved the project in August. The cost is estimated at about $3 million.

Even before construction begins, the new facade has gotten at least one rave: Newport Beach-based Bauer Architects won an Award of Merit this year from the American Institute of Architects’ Orange County Chapter for the design. Jay Bauer, the firm’s founder, was among those present Monday.

“We’re helping the festival — and, I’d say, Laguna Beach — reimagine this place, really bring it back to a place where it reflects the quality of the Festival of Arts and Pageant of the Masters,” he said before the ceremony. “It really says Laguna Beach in a way that the current facade doesn’t.”

In a speech to the crowd Monday, festival board President Fred Sattler saluted the facade’s longevity but said he was happy for a change.

“We never expected the foam — yes, foam — to weather as long as it has,” he said. “We’ve done our best to modestly expand and ingeniously dress it up year after year with banners, planters, trim, columns, new fonts and paint. But now even the most aggressive cosmetic surgeons we could find have refused to work on it.

“They offered no hope. Not one more year.”