Balboa Park will be a construction zone for many months to come as the city shores up historic buildings dating back to 1915.
The park has eight major projects on the drawing board.
Some have already started, such as rewiring the Organ Pavilion. And some are expected to start next year, such as repair of facades at the San Diego Museum of Art and the Museum of Man, where corroded ornamentation is crumbling.
Guests will face a few detours and have to look at scaffolding while visiting one of the city's top tourist draws.
The worst stretch will be next summer, when equipment will probably block front entrances to the art and anthropology museums, city officials said.
Summer is high season for park institutions, and the city usually imposes a moratorium on construction there from Memorial Day through Labor Day. But the large scope of some looming projects is forcing the city to break its own rule.
"We want people to know there are going to be some disruptions, but when the disruption is said and done, the park's going to be better," said Mike Behan, deputy director of the Park and Recreation Department.
Total price tag: $9.9 million.
Who is paying? Not the cash-strapped city, for the most part.
More than $7.6 million is state money, including funds from park bonds in 2002 and 2000. A small portion is private money from charitable groups.
The city is providing roughly $1.6 million from the general fund, $103,700 in hotel tax proceeds, $35,000 from the parks department and $100,000 from Councilwoman Toni Atkins' fund for her district.
The general fund money -- in high demand during the city's current budget crunch -- is mostly going for replacement of the San Diego Aerospace Museum's roof, which was leaking water onto airplane exhibits.
The cost of these renovations, city officials said, is the price you pay for having buildings as old as 90.
The Organ Pavilion, for example, has the original cloth-covered wiring from when it was built for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition.
That renovation project will replace all of it, including the electrical panels and cables, and upgrade the control system.
The detail work is painstaking.
Many exterior lights at the pavilion are housed in individual concrete rosettes. Replacing the lights destroys the original rosettes, so workers must recast 1,640 rosettes and attach them to the pavilion.
To play her regular Sunday concerts, Civic Organist Carol Williams has had to sit in the midst of scaffolding since the renovation began in March.
The city says the wiring work is expected to be finished by early summer.
Other projects:
California Tower and San Diego Museum of Man. These adjoining landmarks from 1915 are suffering from years of sun and rain hitting their facades. Ornamentation – the concrete flourishes that decorate the faces – has corroded over time and is in danger of falling off.
Using a 200-foot crane, workers examined the tower and the museum's south facade, even tugging on pieces to see whether they were loose. They removed buckets of pieces that failed the safety test.
To secure them better, experts recommend inserting steel beams in cavities behind the facade and attaching the loose pieces with pins.
City officials say the tentative plan is to start this work by spring 2006 and complete most of it before summer 2007.
San Diego Museum of Art. Built in 1926, the museum's front facade has similar problems. However, more of these pieces are corroded and will need to be replaced instead of repaired.
Casa del Prado. Built in 1971 as a reproduction of a building from the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition, it houses meeting rooms, dance studios and rehearsal space. Ornamentation also needs to be stabilized.
The city has roughly $3.5 million from a state grant to solve the facade problems at these three buildings. Officials say they are still debating how to allocate the money among the three.
West Arcade. Work is in progress to recreate an arched, covered walkway between the Old Globe Theatre and the art museum. The original, built in 1915, was later torn down. The new walkway, called an arcade, will match the one opposite it on the El Prado promenade.
Construction is expected to finish in early summer.
Veterans Memorial Garden. With displays honoring veterans of each military service, the garden is under construction next to the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center. The first phase is scheduled to be done in time for Veterans Day in November. Two other phases don't yet have funding.
Sewers. About 11 aging sewer lines in the heart of the park will be replaced between now and summer.
San Diego Aerospace Museum. Work to replace a 60,000-square-foot roof began in February and is expected to finish in June.
Jeanette Steele: (619) 293-1030; jen.steele@uniontrib.com