First look
Mayor Gloria says the new Balboa Park pergola will be San Diego’s hottest new wedding venue.
Forever Balboa Park unveiled, quite literally, on Friday, a newly-constructed pergola that caps off its effort to restore the Botanical Garden building and surrounding area to its original 1915 design.
Scores of people sat on outdoor-wedding style white chairs and on new benches to watch as key figures in the successful reconstruction yanked down a curtain to reveal the white columns, lattice roof and five bays of the pergola.
Capstone of 20-year effort
The open-air structure mirrors one of 12 pergolas – archways in gardens or parks – torn down during the Navy requisition of the park in World War II. Now, with the pergola’s addition, park supporters have completed a 20-year-long re-envisioning of the botanical garden section of Balboa Park.
The historic restoration effort came amid other behind-the-scenes changes in the administration of the park, including the founding of its united conservatorship organization, Forever Balboa Park.
After the long wait for the Botanical Garden building remodel, finally completed in December 2024 following years of construction, the quick delivery of the 45-foot pergola, and planting of nine outside gardens came as a surprise.
“Here we are, just 16 months later, marking the opening of a new destination in Balboa Park,” said Forever Balboa Park CEO Katy McDonald. “I know that many of you were skeptical about whether we could actually accomplish the completion of phase two so quickly. And honestly, given the length of time it took to complete the botanical building, I certainly understand that skepticism.”
McDonald touted the achievement as proof that the park’s public-private partnership model works.
History in District 3
The botanical garden building remodel was funded by the state thanks to former state Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins. This effort was philanthropist- and volunteer-led.
Atkins, also a former city council member, attended with another District 3 alum, Christine Kehoe. Alongside Mayor Gloria and Councilmember Stephen Whitburn, every councilmember that has represented Balboa Park since 1993 was present except Assemblymember Chris Ward, who was at a Circulate Planning & Policy press conference.
In an interview, Atkins recalled that Balboa Park was one of the first places she visited after moving to San Diego in 1985. Representing it was an “honor of a lifetime.”
“This is a great day,” Atkins said. “The great days in San Diego are when we get to pay tribute to the legacy. And to have been part of that, to have had some small part, and being part of that legacy, is really an honor.”
Funded by philanthropy
On the private donor side, local lesbian philanthropists Sue Reynolds and Allison Rossett attended. They took photos at the newly-installed bench bearing their names.
Reynolds, who is most involved in LGBTQ+ organizations like The LGBT Center and Diversionary Theatre, said she decided to donate because Balboa Park can be a place where people come together. Plus, it also means a lesbian couple will be memorialized in the jewel of San Diego long into the future.
“Balboa Park is a place people make memories, and this adds to the memories that people will take away from this glorious community space,” Reynolds said.
Leaders predict the area will become a vibrant nook of the park, near the San Diego Museum of Art and the Timken Museum, thanks to the working fountains and nine new central gardens.
Mayor Gloria addresses funding
Mayor Todd Gloria had other predictions for the picturesque structure too, thanks in part to special-use permits. As leader of a city facing a serious deficit, money is never far from his mind.
“The future is that we program this space, that we create what I think will probably be the best wedding venue in the entire city of San Diego,” Gloria said. “That we take the revenue that comes off of that and keep it in the park to reinvest and make it better and better and better.”
Mayor Gloria lambasted a system in which Balboa Park maintenance and improvement funding is reliant on the city’s general fund, which puts it at the whims of the economy, Sacramento and Washington. He predicted that will be fixed by the time he leaves office.
“(Balboa Park) should not have to compete with our police officers and firefighters. It can sustain itself,” Gloria said.
He said the city, which owns the park, will not shirk its responsibility, but will bring philanthropic support through Forever Balboa Park.
What’s next at the gardens
The nine new gardens are still maturing. A slew of volunteers planted and will nurture them.
Maria Drake, a retiree who moved to San Diego from the Midwest three years ago, said volunteering as a gardener connected her to her new home. Now, she knows parts of the park that lifelong San Diegans are unaware of.
“I feel like I’m contributing, and I feel people appreciate it and I enjoy coming here too,” Drake said. “(Without volunteering) it wouldn’t happen otherwise, or it would cost money, And nobody seems to have money to do anything anymore.”
Forever Balboa Park also teased upcoming efforts to improve the park, including at the Rose Garden and central Plaza de Panama as well as a new redwood pergola.
