Girard Avenue Spends One October Weekend Rehearsing Its Own Redesign

What does Girard Avenue look like with the cars gone, people strolling the middle of the street and every block between Torrey Pines Road and Prospect Street used as public space? On October 10 and 11, you can stand in it. The 28th La Jolla Art & Wine Festival closes Girard and spreads about 170 artists down the street. The La Jolla Community Foundation plans to rebuild a stretch of that same street, Girard from Prospect Street to Silverado Street, with new benches, trees, lighting and traffic calming. The Foundation has said it will announce the construction timeline by October 2026.

That timing makes this year's festival more than a fall tradition. It gives you a weekend-long look at a street the Village has been funding, permitting and redesigning for five years.

The festival map and the streetscape map overlap

The festival runs along Girard from Torrey Pines Road north to Prospect Street, with booths spilling onto Silverado and Wall streets. The ticketed Wine & Beer Garden sits in the center stretch of Girard.

The streetscape plan splits Girard into two phases. Phase 1 covers Girard from Prospect Street to Wall Street and is fully funded. Phase 2 continues from Wall to Silverado, and fundraising for it is underway. The festival also closes Wall and Silverado where they meet its Girard footprint, so the two cross streets it fans onto are the same two streets that mark the redesign's boundaries. The Geppetto's Toys Family Art Center will set up at Wall and Girard, right where Phase 1 ends and Phase 2 begins.

Across both phases, the $7.43 million project adds 63 benches, 49 trees, 51 lights and 9,100 square feet of public space. The festival brings in temporary versions of those things, like shaded seating in the beer garden, places to stop mid-block and a street that belongs to people walking. The permanent version is what the Foundation is now waiting to build.

Why the shovels did not arrive in August

Construction was supposed to start this past summer. At the July 16 Enhance La Jolla meeting, Foundation chairwoman Phyllis Pfeiffer brought news in both directions. The project had cleared the City of San Diego's requirements, and it had won $850,000 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The federal money came with stricter bidding rules than the state grant, so the work had to go out to bid a second time.

"We thought we would start construction in August, but this is going to delay us," Pfeiffer said in the San Diego Union-Tribune, adding that the later window could work better for local businesses affected by the work.

She said construction would likely begin in January. Phase 1 has $850,000 from HUD, $1 million from the State of California and about $3 million from local donors. The Foundation's project page now says the permit was issued in August 2026. It still lists the construction timeline as "to be announced by October 2026." As of today, January is a likely start date, not a confirmed one. Back in 2024, Pfeiffer described a plan to stage construction around the summer and winter retail seasons, starting on Girard between Prospect and Wall. That plan came before the rebid. Treat it as background until the Foundation publishes its updated schedule.

The festival itself goes ahead on its usual footprint. In August, the La Jolla Community Planning Association ratified its traffic board's approval of the street closures and described the footprint as unchanged from prior years. Organizers have not said anything public about where the 2027 festival will go.

How the closed street works, block by block

Girard closes from Torrey Pines Road to Prospect Street from Friday afternoon, October 9, through Monday morning, October 12, to allow for setup and cleanup. Signs go up 72 hours ahead. Wall Street closes from Herschel Avenue to Girard, and Silverado closes from Herschel to Fay Avenue. The planning group's August minutes had the streets reopening Sunday. The September 30 guide pushes cleanup into Monday morning, so check posted signs before you park on Girard Sunday night. The guide also warns that cars left in the closure zone on October 9 risk being towed.

• Hours: The festival runs 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, and admission is free.
• Wine & Beer Garden: Open noon to 6 p.m. for guests 21 and older with ID. Packages are $70 for five tastings, $80 for eight and $95 for VIP admission with 10. Tickets are sold at the door while they last, and organizers recommend buying ahead.
• Featured artist: Doug Merskin, a mixed-media artist with studios in Fort Lauderdale and Oceanside, is showing at the festival for the eighth time and as featured artist for the first. His large booth will include an AI tool that previews how a piece would look on your wall.
• Wall and Girard: On Saturday, Home Depot runs children's projects at the Geppetto's Toys Family Art Center. Sunday brings a petting zoo with llamas, bunnies and chickens.
• Music: Pop Vinyl headlines Saturday and Full Strength headlines Sunday. Paging the 90s also plays Saturday, and the contemporary ballet company The Rosin Box Project performs both days.
• Dogs: The festival is dog-friendly.
• Getting there: Organizers list street parking, paid lots, advance ACE Parking reservations and rideshare. They don't list a shuttle. Rideshare drop-offs are on Eads Avenue and Silverado Street.

Proceeds support underfunded art, music, science, physical education, technology and on-site medical care programs at La Jolla's public schools. The festival has given more than $1.7 million to those programs since it started.

The festival's southern edge has its own construction starting

The festival ends at Torrey Pines Road, and that road picks up a long project of its own the same week. Starting Tuesday, October 6, crews will remove the temporary concrete K-rail on westbound Torrey Pines Road between Coast Walk and Prospect Place. They will replace it with a permanent galvanized-steel ST-75 bridge rail. Work runs at night, 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, and continues through March.

During work hours, the northern westbound lane and the bike lane close. City spokesperson Tyler Becker said the road will be clear for daytime traffic. That leaves the festival's Saturday and Sunday hours alone, but Sunday night of festival weekend falls inside a work window. The sidewalk stays open at first. Later in the project, pedestrians will be sent to the south side of the road. Becker said the start date could shift depending on when materials arrive. Neighbors right around the project should get a door hanger at least a week before work begins. The K-rail went in after a car left the road and landed in a private yard on Coast Walk in 2018. A permanent fix has been under discussion since 2021.

The Village calendar around the festival

The festival weekend falls in the middle of a crowded stretch, and several events sit within a block or two of Girard.

1. Friday, Oct. 2: The merchants' First Friday Art Walk includes a pop-up at 7730 Girard Avenue. La Jolla Modernism & Architecture Week, presented by the Museum of History and Culture La Jolla, opens the same night with a soiree at a private modernist home. The location hasn't been announced.
2. Saturday, Oct. 3: The La Jolla Modernism Tour opens a selection of privately owned mid-century modern homes.
3. Through Oct. 9: The Athenaeum Music & Arts Library's 34th annual Juried Exhibition is on view at 1008 Wall St., inside the festival's closure area.
4. Through Oct. 10: "Christine Lee: By Hand" closes at Quint Gallery, 7722 Girard Ave. The show includes weavings made with cotton, wool and copper wire.
5. Saturday, Oct. 10: Modernism Week holds its "Discover the Story of Scripps Institution of Oceanography" lecture while festival booths fill Girard.
6. Tuesday, Oct. 13: The San Diego International Film Festival opens with its Night of the Stars Tribute at the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center, 7600 Fay Ave. Viola Davis receives the Gregory Peck Award for Cinematic Excellence.
7. Oct. 15: The opening-night film, "The Debut," screens at The Lot, 7611 Fay Ave. Tickets for the premiere and party are $85.
8. Friday, Oct. 16: The Athenaeum holds an opening reception for works by Sylvia Fernandez from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

What happens on Girard after October

The next Girard date already on the calendar is Sunday, December 6, when the 70th La Jolla Christmas Parade steps off at 1 p.m. from Kline Street and Girard Avenue. The Holiday Festival follows at the Rec Center from 1 to 5 p.m. If the January estimate holds, the parade will be the last big event on Girard before Phase 1 work begins between Prospect and Wall. That depends on the schedule the Foundation has said it will release this month. Once the work is done, Enhance La Jolla will take over upkeep of the finished blocks. Phase 2, from Wall to Silverado, starts only after its fundraising is complete.

If you own on or near Girard and want to know how a multi-month streetscape build usually sequences around storefronts, deliveries and residential access, WM Luxury Real Estate can walk you through it with the eye of a team that has spent decades in construction. Request a private consultation once the Foundation's timeline is out, and we'll go through what the phasing means for your block.