Support grows behind a proposal to turn a NOAA facility in P.G. into a museum.

Author and Pacific Grove gallery owner Steve Hauk had a vision but he wasn’t sure how to make it happen. The vision came about after he learned that the federal government was preparing to sell the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration building on Point Pinos in P.G. The top of the building is wrapped in a multi-panel mural of Monterey Bay sea life created by artist Ray Troll. With its location – less than a block from the ocean – Hauk saw an oceanography museum as a perfect reuse.

He released the vision into the world with a cover article in the latest edition of the visitor’s guide Discover Pacific Grove. “I didn’t think it would go anywhere,” Hauk says. He was wrong. One visitor who read it was oceanographer Chuck Greene, director of the Ocean Resources and Ecosystems Program at Cornell University. Greene contacted Hauk and helped fill out the vision for a place where science, art and technology would intertwine. “The whole Monterey Bay region is a hotbed for ocean science, and world renowned for its art, photography and media and a lot of it is ocean inspired,” Greene says.

Others contacted Hauk wanting to help make his vision a reality, including Darcie Fohrman, a museum consultant and president of the Youth Arts Collective board. Photographer Ken Parker with the Weston Gallery also joined. Greene sees the building’s location as perfect for small workshops since it’s walking distance from hotels along Lighthouse and Asilomar avenues. Fohrman is excited by the prospect of bringing school children and older students to the ocean.

The team is gathering public support for the project they are calling COAST, Center for Ocean, Art, Science and Technology. On March 17, they presented to the Pacific Grove City Council to an enthusiastic response.

There is a hurdle to overcome and that’s the federal government, which bundled the building with 11 other properties across the country – including a missile site in New Jersey and the U.S. Geological Survey Menlo Park campus – for an auction this summer. Greene has been using his connections within the government to get intel.

“Right now our biggest priority is to figure out if we can get it out of this portfolio sale,” Greene says. Due to its location within a sensitive habitat, he says any developer would face huge obstacles. They hope to convince authorities that COAST would be the site’s best use.