The Loop’s five-year run as an art installation at the corner of Ocean Boulevard and Pine Avenue could be coming to a close after a driver crashed into it, causing substantial damage over Labor Day weekend.
Caution tape and orange Public Works cones formed a perimeter around The Loop Wednesday and a large section of the installation that was ripped off sat displaced in an area that used to be a space for pop-up events and for pedestrians to rest.
A shattered city trash bin rested next to a sign describing the art installation, and its purple LED lights, some of them now exposed by the damage, still blinked as if the structure was clinging to life. But its days may be numbered.
Michael Berman, a spokesperson for the Downtown Long Beach Alliance, said that the damage is substantial but the DLBA is weighing all its options to repair the mangled art installation or to get rid of it.
The group has no cost estimate of how much it will take to repair The Loop, Berman said.
“One of those options is to remove it altogether, and that was always in the plan,” Berman said.
A Long Beach Police Department spokesperson said Wednesday that officers responded to a single-car accident at The Loop Sunday around 11 a.m. where they found a female driver who had crashed into multiple objects including a bus stop, trash can, parking meter, electric scooters and the palm tree, which fell ever and severed the art installation.
A preliminary investigation showed the the woman was traveling east on Ocean when she lost control of her car. She was transported to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries, according to police.
Berman said there is no timeline right now for a decision since the collision happened just a few days ago, but that the DLBA wants to move forward with a decision sooner rather than later.
The Loop was originally installed as a temporary art piece to activate the long-empty southeast corner at the intersection of Ocean and Pine that had sat dormant since the demolition of the Jergins Trust building in 1988. It was originally estimated to remain at the location for up to 24 months but the development it was serving as a placeholder for has yet to materialize.
A 30-story hotel is in the works for the site and would occupy the entire southeast corner of the intersection south of Ocean, but pandemic-related delays have led developers to pursue extensions from the city for its project’s groundbreaking.
The proposed American Life project would include 429 hotel rooms and a rooftop restaurant. The city’s Planning Commission granted a three-year window for construction to begin at its March 4 meeting.
Planning Commission approves 30-story hotel project at old Jergins Trust site