The Big Pink: How to Create an Unintentional Photo Booth
“Lalo” Luis Beltran
When the construction phase of El Jardin began, contractor Dan Upton dropped by with a handout from the City of Santa Barbara titled “Walkway Protection.” He said, “We need a walkway protection structure for the sidewalk in front of El Jardin. Make it fun if you want. Just stick with these rules and make it strong enough to walk on. On second thought, just get a permit – I'll figure it out.”
It wasn’t very complicated. The sidewalk along the 800 block of Garden Street was five feet wide and the lot was forty-three feet long. In about ten minutes, I sketched up the plans per the city’s requirements, adding some elliptical arches out of plywood to make an Arcade and to provide lateral stability for the open side of the structure. I listed all of the correct lumber sizes, called out the attachment details, and per the City requirements, I made a note on the sketch that read “Paint structure with gloss paint.“
I gave the plans to Dan. He took them to the Public Works counter, pulled the permit and the Arcade was built in two days. Dan called and said, “You need to pick a paint color.” I went to Frazee Paint across the street and picked the most luscious pink I could find. I gave him the chip. “Gloss,” I said.
A month later, I got a call from a Planner at City Planning. I’m not sure if he was angry or just baffled when he said, “Jeff, we didn’t give you approval to paint the walkway structure pink!” I didn’t have to ask what they were talking about, I only had one pink project in town and it was only a block from the City Planning Department. I said, “The plans said to use gloss paint per the requirements in the City guidelines. The guidelines don’t talk about color and no one ever asked me. And you guys stamped the plans.”
The Pink Arcade was up for a year. Every time I ran into the Planner, he would just shake his head at me and say, “PINK?”
One morning, we found the most awesome note tacked to the Pink Arcade dubbing it the “Tunnel of Love & Beauty.”
Almost instantly, the Pink Arcade became a Photo Booth and we watched passersby take each other's pictures all day long, including students on field trips and once, a couple taking wedding photos. It turns out everyone looks good in pink.
Random Traveling Swedes: Stina, Mikael & Tomas
A Pink Arcade Wedding
Students on a Field Trip
Jeff & Solomon