With its new Point Loma gateway sign officially complete and lighted, the Point Loma Association celebrated with a dedication ceremony March 10 at the DoubleTree San Diego Bayside hotel on North Harbor Drive.
The event featured community and project leaders as well as San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria as guests shared a round of champagne.
The party marked the culmination of a three-year effort to bring the sign to the median of Rosecrans Street just south of Lytton Street.
When the PLA detailed the project in 2024, cost estimates for the sign were upward of a half-million dollars and the expected timeline to install it was spring 2025.
PLA Chairwoman Beth Roach said the project was delayed for reasons including inclement weather, holidays and vacations and that the cost — fully funded by private donations — was more than a half-million dollars, largely because Rosecrans Street is considered a state highway and most of the construction was done at night, when labor costs are higher.
Association managing partner J.T. Barr, who designed the sign, said previously that the location was a strategic choice.
“Point Loma already has existing entry signs at Nimitz Boulevard and Harbor Drive,” Barr said. “Rosecrans Street [was] the last remaining prominent avenue into the Point Loma community that [did] not have some kind of monument that reinforces a sense of arrival.”
The sign’s cursive font “evokes the rich history of Point Loma while creating brand consistency between all our community gateways,” Barr said.