Coming up Orchids
Each year, the San Diego Architectural Foundation’s presents Orchids & Onions, which began in the 1970’s to raise public awareness for the built environment. Today, it remains a conversation starter about how design improves the life of San Diegans.
We present the winners—and a few losers too.
Architect/Designer: By Safdie Rabines Architects & TY Lin
Owner/Developer: For NCTD/ Build NCC
San Elijo Lagoon Pedestrian Bridge, which spans the lagoon between Encinitas and Cardiff between Interstate 5, earned a prize for providing a deeper connection to nature. Here, bird-watchers and nature lovers explore ecological diversity. It’s part of the North Coast Corridor Program improving highway, rail, bike, and pedestrian mobility along the 27-mile corridor from La Jolla to Oceanside.
From the Jury: “Clean, simple, successful. More sculpture than structure… I admire the restraint they used in decorating the exposed walls of the freeway bridge and not putting ships and birds and things on it.”
Architect/Designer: Safdie Rabines Architects
For UC San Diego
Photo credit: For NCTD/ Build NCC
Designed to create a grand entrance to the campus, the Epstein Family Amphitheater is a multi-functional performance venue in the heart of UC San Diego. The first in a series of transformational developments, the amphitheater invites all San Diegans to experience the unique interdisciplinary integration of art and entertainment, research and education that embodies the campus culture.
The amphitheater is a hop-skip from the Mid-Coast Trolley line to UC San Diego, part of a larger initiative to welcome students and the greater community to campus.
From the Jury: “The amphitheater is an interesting point where you have public transportation merging with residential and the UCSD school system, all in this one quadrant… It will continue to be a beacon to folks who want to enter the campus and begin to discover what UCSD has to offer.”
Architect/Designer: obrARCHITECTURE
Too cool for school? That would be Pacific Sky School designed by obrARCHITECTURE, which prioritized sustainability and natural beauty throughout the 10-acre site. Classrooms feature large glazed bifold doors for seamless collaboration with outdoor spaces, inspired by students’ connection with nature. A start of the 65,000 square foot K-6 elementary school: The Innovation Center, featuring flex areas for robotics, computers, presentations, and reading nooks.
From the jury: “The landscape design was restrained with an elegant palette of plants native to the mesa and canyon, along with simple materials, compared to the neighborhoods' over-indulgence—not every color, every plant in the world.”
The amphitheater is a hop-skip from the Mid-Coast Trolley line to UC San Diego, part of a larger initiative to welcome students and the greater community to campus.
From the Jury: “The amphitheater is an interesting point where you have public transportation merging with residential and the UCSD school system, all in this one quadrant… It will continue to be a beacon to folks who want to enter the campus and begin to discover what UCSD has to offer.”
Landscape Architect/Designer: Schmidt Design Group
Inspired by the neighboring canyon, the design incorporates concrete masonry, exposed heavy timber structure, and ample glazing for durability and a natural connection to the site. Universal design principles incorporate sloped walkways and ramps indoors and outdoors for equal access and learning opportunities.
Sustainability is prioritized, meeting Green Building Code and CHPS standards. Clerestory windows, large, glazed openings for natural ventilation and daylight, concrete masonry walls, efficient landscaping and irrigation systems, and stormwater retention basins blend practicality with architectural and natural beauty on the site.
3829 30th St, San Diego, CA 92104
Architect/Designer: Taylor Leage, CH Projects’ Department of Interior and Arsalun Tafazoli
The dual concept, featuring a record store and Japanese-inspired listening bar culture, is by Arsalun Tafazoli and CH Projects. The bar’s open layout was designed for music connoisseurs to converge. Custom furniture by local craftsmen subscribes to the Prairie School aesthetic. The classic 1930s Brunswick Art Deco triple arch-back bar embraces a classic vernacular, while the furniture takes a crafted Midwest approach with the bar and table custom-made for the space by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.
From the jury: "It satisfies all the senses... I appreciate that they didn't cover up the ceiling, showing the original architectural structure. It feels old, a sense of history, and super new. It satisfies all the senses — auditory, tactile, smell, the cocktails.”
3829 30th St, San Diego, CA 92104
Project Architect/Designer: HGW Architecture
Be like the fox. And scramble up boulders across a rope bridge over to the ancient oak tree. Playfulness indeed takes hold on this interactive three-acre site, featuring 12 exhibits interconnected by a series of playful pathways. The site is a multi-ecosystem experience with landscapes and wildlife curated to represent four distinct habitats from Desert Dunes. Carefully designed curvilinear steel and mesh enclosures lightly touch the ground, aiming to break down the perceived separation between animals and visitors.
From the Jury: “This is where kids are going to get educated; it's not a video game. Nature is connected to the playground, discoveries, and spaces. Careful and deliberate use of variation on colored cladding softens the otherwise minimal form.”
Architect/Designer: Robert Thiele
Owner/Developer: City of San Diego/Balboa Park Committee of 100
The San Diego Automotive Museum in Balboa Park received top honors in historic preservation. The monumental eight-year project not only revitalized Palisades Plaza for pedestrians, it revived the original California State Building to its early splendor. Four original tile murals—depicting images of California’s commerce—were recreated and returned to vivid life. Two bronzed replicas of life-size California grizzly bears were hoisted onto the roof. And two gilded flagpoles are now flying high at the parapet.
The Balboa Park Committee, the park’s oldest preservation group, raised an estimated $750,000. Architect Robert Thiele oversaw the entire project pro-bono, working largely from black-and-white images to determine the original look.
From the Jury: “It made me realize, as a resident, that parts of Balboa Park can be better than ever. It's restoring the history of the park. The attention to detail is admirable. Thank you to Robert Thiele for donating his time to the city.”
Owner/Developer: City of San Diego & San Diego Theatres, Inc.
The ill-conceived repainting of the 1924 theater from its original ochre color. The new paint scheme is a mix of clashing colors: blinding white, battleship gray, raspberry and gold accents. Inexplicably, the Balboa Theater now looks almost exactly as it did from 1960 to 2007, when it was a mostly abandoned, rundown building.
Designer/Owner/Developer: SDG&E
SDGE’s utility boxes, located on sidewalks, impede walkability and contradict pedestrian-friendly sidewalks. It says, "Let's devalue our most valuable urban spaces."
Designer/Owner/Developer: City of San Diego
On 4th and 5th Avenue between Downtown and Hillcrest
New dedicated bike lanes were designed with planter boxes. With little room to successfully plant trees, they ended up filled with concrete. “The city must be called out for their hypocrisy and inability to do the basics of urban forestry correctly.”
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