The Balboa Park Cultural District Cultural Plaza will be a designated space for People of Color to bring their communities together.
The precise plan for the Balboa Park Central Mesa identifies the need to “create a new multi-use plaza between the Centro Cultural de la Raza and the WorldBeat Center”.
While this multi-use plaza did not come to fruition, the reality is that this underdeveloped space has been cared for, activated, and utilized as an important program space by the two cultural organizations that border it.
The precise plan recognizes a number of considerations and recommendations including providing a performance space, restroom remodels, raised seat walls, enhanced lighting, enhanced paving across Park Boulevard, and on-site parking.
The more recent Balboa Park Experience Plan provides additional guidance with many of the above elements supported, and the following recommendations: improve pedestrian safety and connectivity within the Balboa Park Cultural District, integrate flexible and multipurpose performance and event infrastructure, corresponding site improvements to improve circulation and access, provide modern amenities like WIFI and distributed audio, and to investigate opportunities to support and sustain programming within that space.
The Experience Plan also recognizes a legacy of exclusion within Balboa Park, with a core tenet to improve access and inclusion within the Balboa Park Cultural District. As leaders in the area, WorldBeat Cultural Center and Centro Cultural de la Raza know how to engage and empower communities of color.
The Cultural Plaza will deliver on a promise.
This promise is to provide access to a high quality and well-maintained space for mission-aligned community gatherings and events in the Balboa Park Cultural District for People of Color, arts and culture organizations, and community groups throughout the City.It will also provide the two neighboring arts and culture nonprofits an enhanced space to welcome and celebrate with their communities.
As a key pilot implementation project for the Balboa Park Experience Plan, work can now begin on community engagement regarding the utilization for the Cultural Plaza, working on contemporary design elements necessary for the space, establishing formal relationships regarding the development and ongoing management of the space, and ensuring ongoing operations, maintenance, and community engagement.
Project Elements
Proposed project elements that will be considered and evaluated through an active community consultation process will include:
- Characteristics of the performance space/raised stage
- Flexible and multipurpose performance and event infrastructure
- External restroom remodel and access control
- Seating walls and grassed areas
- Hardscape areas for vendors and activities
- Enhanced lighting with integrated soundscape elements
- On-site parking, particularly for handicapped
- Enhanced paving across Park Boulevard
- Through physical means like paths and bridges, wayfinding signage and enhanced shuttle services, increase connectivity to the core of the Cultural District and/or the parking lot behind Spreckels Organ Pavilion
- Site improvements within WorldBeat Cultural Center and Centro Cultural de la Raza necessary to service the Cultural Plaza and enhance the guest experience
- Improve circulation, safety and access for pedestrians
- Modern amenities like WIFI and distributed audio
- Security and safety systems and considerations
- Operational and maintenance considerations
