Crystal Cove’s historic cottages on the sand tell a story about the coastline’s past – a California architectural style unique to decades ago, tales of a close-knit community sprouted from a post-war era and a history so important that tens of millions of dollars have been spent to preserve the small slice of coastal heaven.
The nonprofit Crystal Cove Conservancy is making headway on a $55 million project to restore the last cottages needing preservation along the north end of the 2.3-acre Crystal Cove Historic District, with five new units expected to be open in coming weeks.
Along with the painstaking detail going into preserving the past, much thought has also been given to the future of the cottages – from building to ensure they can withstand future climate challenges to educating a new generation of engineers to document and plan for rising seas.
“Crystal Cove is a unique State Park in California because it is a place where we can contemplate the challenges of balancing environmental needs against cultural needs, against today’s recreational needs,” said Brett Sanders, a UC Irvine professor of civil and environmental engineering. “And realize that it’s not going to be easy.”
For decades, the beachfront community known as “coveites” enjoyed a laid-back lifestyle living in a cobbled together collection of cottages, many built from wood that washed ashore, having Saturday night martini parties, beach bonfires and eating fresh fish and abalone plucked straight from the sea.
Today, the first of the restored cottages are used for a mix of educational programs and overnight stays – they are the most sought after in the State Parks system. And 17 more are now undergoing a massive makeover, with details down to the doorknobs reflecting the time period they were built between the ’30s and ’50s.
Planning for the future
As work is underway to preserve the area’s past, much has also been done to plan for the area’s future.
Kate Wheeler, president and CEO of the Crystal Cove Conservancy, talked about the long journey to restore the North Beach cottages, saying the California Coastal Commission “put us through the paces,” partly to ensure the area could withstand future sea-level rise.
The 650-foot-long boardwalk that fronts the first row of cottages was the biggest hurdle, needing to be built in a way so it didn’t act like a seawall, which could contribute to coastal erosion.
“We had to go back and redo the engineering plans,” Wheeler said. “Through that process, that’s where this coastal engineering project with UCI was born and we started working with the school of engineering.”
The entire project, the Coastal Commission said, had to withstand the levels of sea level rise expected by 2050.
“For $55 million,” Wheeler said, “I really want these to be standing after 2050.”
Instead of a boardwalk that would block the ocean, the wooden walkway was lifted with several caissons drilled down into the bedrock so water could naturally slope under it.
By contrast, the cottage on the opposite side of the beach, which was used in the ’80s Bette Midler movie “Beaches,” has a seawall in front that has impacted the adjacent beach, Wheeler said.
“When we have storms, we lose a ton of sand,” she said. “If you walk to the boardwalk, we don’t see that sand loss. It’s a great illustration project.”
Other considerations put in place: some of the cottages had to be lifted higher than they once were to be out of the ocean’s future potential pathway and retaining walls were built to withstand possible cliff erosion.
Part of the Crystal Cove permit hinged on adding an environmental educational component, with a $1 million endowment from the state specifically tied to creating a dorm out of one of the cottages that will be set aside for at least 36 nights annually for a coastal engineering and research program.
UCI School of Engineering Dean Magnus Egerstedt recalled showing up for breakfast at the Beachcomber Café a few years back as he was being recruited to the school from Georgia Tech in Atlanta, the only one wearing a suit and tie to the beach.
Egerstedt, like countless others who have soaked in the Crystal Cove scenery, said he instantly fell in love with the area.
“Crystal Cove is a beautiful canvas,” he said. “As far as classrooms go, Crystal Cove is the most inspirational, glorious classroom.”
But for Egerstedt, a roboticist who created “slothbots” that use mobile sensors to take measurements, it’s not just about the beautiful views, working with the conservancy has been an opportunity to study what is happening in the coastal environment, in order to protect it for the future.
Wheeler envisions programs for kindergartners through college seniors, the younger students studying everything from plastics pollution to tidepools, the older students focusing on coastal dynamics programs, she said. And some will be able to enjoy a two-night, three-day experience staying in a 11-bed dorm being made out of one of the cottages, which is expected to open within the next two years.
“The hope is to see it as a partnership, the kids are helping with live, real research projects,” Egerstedt said. “It’s part education and data collection, but to contribute to push the frontiers of human knowledge.”
Sanders, an expert on coastal erosion and climate change issues facing the California coast, has been working with Crystal Cove Conservancy for six years to develop the first-of-its-kind curriculum, used already the past two years by hundreds of Orange County high schoolers, many from underserved communities.
“At first, the conservancy was interested in the fact they were building new structures right against the ocean, potentially affected by sea level rise,” he said, “and they were interested in a program that could perhaps help designers of buildings and structures (by) collecting data of what was happening to the structures and coast over time.”
But Sanders said he also saw an opportunity to broaden that idea to educational programs studying the changing complexities of the coastline.
“Climate change is clearly one of the most important issues we face today,” he said, “and the coast presents a really outstanding natural laboratory to teach differences between climate change, the long-term change, and change that happens on a monthly and yearly basis, so that we can have a public that is more literate when addressing the coastal challenges we face today.”
The Coastal Dynamics initiative allows students visiting from around Southern California – some who have never been to the beach – to learn measuring techniques for beach surveys to document sand height and width at a given time, tracking erosion levels.
“We build a long-term data set of beach change,” Sanders said. “So every class that comes adds another layer of data.”
Students learn how to upload the data into a computer program to help catalog the changes that occur over time.
The curriculum pairs with environmental science classes and is part of the state’s “next generation science standards,” Sanders said.
The hope is that students discover a passion for coastal engineering and want to use their knowledge toward a career path.
“We’re grooming students first with engineering skills because they are learning to collect and plot data and model the coast at the high school level,” Sanders said. “They can go into college with programming expertise that is relevant to climate change.”
Another part of it is inspiring a future generation of engineers who can help not just study, but plan for the future of area beaches.
“The coast is an extraordinary driver to the cultural identity of Southern California. This is so core to who we are culturally. It’s a tourism driver. The beaches and coast are critically important,” Egerstedt said. “What are the big, mega questions we’re facing as a community and a global society? If we can’t wrap our minds around climate change, a lot of other things won’t matter because there won’t be a society around to enjoy them.”
Source: Orange County Register
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