Encinitas Mayor Teresa Barth presented the first-ever Mayor's Award for Excellence in Historic Preservation to a group of residents responsible for maintaining the Leucadia building that is home to Café Ipe, at 70 N. Coast Highway and the neighboring Surfy Surfy Surf Shop and Santos Fine Art Gallery
She commended the individuals for choosing to improve the ageing building instead of demolishing it.
“It’s always easier to tear it down and build something new,” she said. “You would have gotten bigger, but you would never have gotten better.”
The recipients:
- Building owners Keith Harrison & family
- Architect Yvonne St. Pierre
- Construction supervisor George “The Viking” Soiter
- J.P. St. Pierre, of Surfy Surfy Surf Shop
- Dave Thomas, of Café Ipe
- Santo Orellana, of Santos Fine Art Galleries
- Mark Paterson, the “Surfing Madonna” artist. (The mosaic is formally known as “Save the Ocean.”)
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