PELICAN WALL - 1991
Crisp intaglio pelican-forms appear to fly along a 120-foot stretch of concrete retaining wall on the Pacific Coast Highway, Newport Beach. All the birds move in the same direction. Those at the most extreme right portion (for a viewer facing the wall) appear to have alighted on the grass by the road.
“The American Institute of Architects Orange County chapter...gave Honor Awards (the top prize) to Newport Beach for Pelican Wall on Newport Bay, designed by Tom Van Sant of Santa Monica.” [1]
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1800 block of Pacific Coast Highway, Newport Beach, California
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1991
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Unknown.
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Cast concrete.
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15 ft. x 120 ft.
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Unknown
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City of Newport Beach
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Extant, in situ, in good condition.
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All images: Tom Van Sant's Pelican Wall, Newport Beach, 2023. Photographs by Janet Owen Driggs.
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“China has its Great Wall, Newport has its retaining wall. The Pelican Wall in the 1800 block of West Coast Highway will be dedicated today at 6pm. The decorative wall was built to keep the bluff in check above a new stretch of sidewalk, the final link connecting walkways from Corona del Mar to Huntington Beach. Santa Monica Artist Tom Van Sant designed the recessed figures of pelicans flying across the wall.” [2]
[1] Cathy Curtis “Architects Hand Out Awards,” Los Angeles Times, July 22, 1995, pg. OC F3.
[2] “Newport Beach,” Sant Ana Orange County Register, Santa Ana, CA, May 21, 1993, pg. 31.
