Dear Friend of the Air & Space Museum and Balboa Park,

As you might have heard, a short while ago the San Diego Air & Space Museum joined our fellow park cultural institutions, Mayor Kevin Faulconer and dozens of civic and cultural leaders in applauding the renewed efforts to remove cars from the congested center of Balboa Park.

Though it’s called the Plaza de Panama Project, the plan does much more than complete the transformation of the grand plaza in the center of the park. The plan reclaims for pedestrians the Plaza de California in front of the Museum of Man, the west El Prado, the entire Plaza de Panama and the promenade leading to the Spreckels Organ Pavilion. In other words, everything from the arch at the end of the Cabrillo Bridge to the Organ Pavilion will be completely free of cars, landscaped and available for the safe enjoyment of park visitors.

In addition, the Organ Pavilion parking lot is reclaimed as park space (2.2 acres) on top of an underground parking lot with hundreds more parking spaces than the current asphalt surface lot. This ensures proximate parking for visitors and adds two acres of much-desired green space. In all, the project adds 6.2 acres of car-free open space to enjoy.

Vehicle access to the park from the west (from Laurel Street) remains as it is today, via a road, leading off the end of the Cabrillo Bridge to a drop-off point and a handicapped parking lot in the Alcazar Garden parking lot. For the 45-47 percent of visitors entering from the west, Park entry is retained.

We believe this is a tremendous win for park visitors. This project was approved by the City Council in 2012 and is now part of the Balboa Park Master Plan. The finished project also allows future generations to experience the beauty of the Park in spaces previously meant for people.

To see images and take a closer look at the future pedestrian spaces and beautiful designs coming to Balboa Park please visit the project’s website.

The San Diego Air & Space Museum is incredibly excited to see the Plaza de Panama Project advance and looks forward to the restoration of San Diego’s crown jewel.

We would love to hear from you! Please let us know what excites you most about the project by sending your comments to marketing@sdasm.org.

For more information, visit the following links:

http://sandiegoairandspace.org/support/plaza-de-panama-project

http://bit.ly/plazadepanama

http://bit.ly/PDPfaq

To read more about the project, visit http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/nonprofits/a-readers-guide-to-the-balboa-park-revamp/.