The City of San Diego is set to show the public what a replacement design for the OB Pier may look like, and is prepping for the unveiling of a final, preferred design concept at a community workshop on Saturday, April 6.
Three potential design concepts for a replacement pier were presented in September of 2023, and the city has been collecting feedback from San Diegans ever since on what they want to see in the new pier. And now city officials are saying the preferred design is an amalgamation of the three concepts, using the public input received to combine preferred features from each design.
The session will be held 2 to 5 p.m. April 6 at the Liberty Station Conference Center, 2600 Laning Road. Residents from throughout the region are encouraged to attend and bring their kids. City staff and engineering consultants will present the preferred design for the first time, as well as an estimated cost range.
That will be followed by self-paced interactive workshops where participants can give feedback. The design team will also seek more input on certain amenities, such as lighting and shade.
Those who cannot attend can find out more about the design afterward at OBPierRenewal.com and future public events and can share their opinions through an online survey.
The renewal project will still need to go through environmental reviews and permitting as required by law.
The city hopes to start building a new pier by 2026.
Here are renderings of the 3 different designs the city initially came up with, which were presented in the early fall last year:
The OB Pier has really gotten pounded over the years by big surf because it is the only ocean pier that has ever been constructed over a reef. Maybe the height of the walkway will reconsile larger swells; but I have spoken with a few different Scripps Institute guys over the years, that say the pier should be relocated to north of the reef. Installed over the sandy ocean floor.
Lakshadweep, Amini Island Pier. Pier over coral reef.
Unfortunately the pier in Lakshadweep is in the process of suffering the very same fate as our beloved OB Pier. Mackin’ surf in the video though.
Crystal Pier was dedicated in ’25. There was a ballroom at the end over the ocean that got taken out by big surf. So there was a redesign and rebuild of the pier that gives it the transition ramp elevating the pier by some 10th or so. IB, Crystal, Scripps, Del Mar (removed in 1957), O’side, San Clemente, Huntington, Redondo, Manhattan, & Venice Beach, Santa Monica, Malibu, Ventura, Pismo, Morro Bay, Santa Cruz piers are all built over sandy bottom beaches.
If they can incorporate a more elevated walkway maybe that solves the issue? I was only mentioning the conversations I have had with Scripps Institute of Oceanography guys that are much smarter than I am, and all dozens and dozens of times that I have witnessed firsthand that pier taking a beating over my last 56 years of life.
some 10 ft or so.
I was on the southside bluffs watching a large section of the end break off and bash into the pilings in a huge swell sometime in the (I think) early 70s. It was when my maternal grandma was living on either Diamond St. or Oliver St. in PB so it might have been late 60s even. I remember watching it thinking that Crystal Pier was going to break apart. Obviously it didn’t but us PB Jr High kids started calling the Crystal Stub from then on…
sealintheSelkirks
The chunk bashed and smashed
Sorry, but, never mind the area dam repairs starting no sooner than 2029, but who needs drinking water when you can walk on a pier? Throw another 1/2 cent in the taxes for that one. I know there’s toilet water in the works to drink. I’m sure people are going to need to walk somewhere wondering why nothing’s affordable.
Do you think a new pier will actually ever happen?
The OB Library was to be torn down in the late 1990s…after a small and dedicated group worked for all these many years, it looks as if a tear down/expansion will happen …project to start next year or so.
They’ll try bc Todd needs your vote!