Local artists contracted for Santa Cruz Ocean Street Gateway Beautification

Santa Cruz is trying to make a better first impression on visitors, right as they enter the city coming off Highway 17 and onto Ocean Street.

Local artists are designing and creating the ocean street gateway public art project.

“This is the small flame, and then this is the big flame.”

Chris Mosley, or Moze, has been working with glass for a decade - both as an engineer and an artist.

“It's so raw to be able to take something that's, you know, just like starts off like this and then becomes this, you know, through fire. It was just magic, right? It was like alchemy."

He said being selected in June for the Ocean Street beautification was a dream come true.

“This project represents me being able to do what I love doing for the first time being paid a living wage.”

The other artist on the project is Melissa Marzan

“My artwork is inspired by the ocean because I grew up going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and going to the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk.”

She’ll be putting together the 3D Santa Cruz signage.

“In each letter cut out it will be cut out of, redwood. And within each inset of the letter I will be hand painting. Iconic, landscapes from Santa Cruz.”

Marzan is also highlighting Santa Cruz history She's featuring symbols from the indigenous tribes that were here before colonization, and also a redwood surfboard representing the the Hawaiian princes that brought surfing to the central coast.

"We're talking probably like 2000 of these.”

Moze will be making life sized native animal sculptures out of metal and glass.

“Placed all around the sculpture to make up like the color of the the blue heron.”

Blue herons, deer, banana slugs and maybe a fox.

“The space where the project's going to go, it's like these beautiful tall redwoods, and there's, like, grass and there's, like, all these elements. And I was like, what if I created these animals that were kind of like in nature and it was kind of almost like you were seeing like an endangered species or this rare animal,” he said.

Santa Cruz Asset Manager David McCormic said part of the gateway plan is about public safety and discouraging loitering and panhandling at the intersection.

“Looking to improve, both the beauty and the welcome of the gateway, but also to address some of the unwanted activity that's here. And we’re gonna be looking at ways to make it more difficult to hang out on the median or next to the roadway where someone might fall in and get hit by a car.”

Moze sees the project as an opportunity - not to alienate the homeless folks who hang out there - but to include them.

“One of my ideas is to be able to help the local, like have the local people, like, plant the flowers, and bring in people who would like, feel left out, bring them into the fold so they feel like they have ownership. I think a lot of the problems as we like kick these people out and then they're like, well, I'm living on the street, but here's this nice stuff. I don't care about your nice stuff. So it's like, why don't we, like, bring them in so they feel like they're a part of the equation.”

Studies show that beautifying vacant land can lead to a reduction in crime.

Santa Cruz hopes to unveil the finished gateway by summer 2026 as a new statement for everybody coming in.

“We're like a little art powerhouse, and there's a lot of talented people here and there's a lot of opportunities for growth. So I'm hoping that this project kind of communicates that.”

The city of Santa Cruz is spending around 850 thousand dollars all together to transform this intersection.
Moze and Melissa are already laying the groundwork for their sculpture, and they plan to begin installations in the spring.