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Old Posted Apr 22, 2015, 7:02 PM
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San Diego - Downtown - Historic to Postmodern Buildings

San Diego is the 8th largest city in the United States by population (1,355,000) and is by far the largest city of the San Diego-Carlsbad Metropolitan Statistical Area in Southern California (the 12th largest in the United States).

Downtown is located on the Eastern side of San Diego Bay, a natural harbor that is about 13 miles long and averages about 1 mile wide. A bend in the bay's shoreline embraces the Western and Southern boundaries of downtown, while a bend in the Interstate Freeway #5 creates the Eastern and Northern boundaries. It is about 1.5 miles from East to West and 1.3 miles from North to South. The terrain is mostly flat, with gradual slopes up from the shoreline, reaching a steeper incline in the Northeast corner at the area called Cortez Hill. Downtown has a wide variety of uses and structures, and is a lively and attractive place in comparison to its condition before the developments of the past 25 years.

This thread will focus on buildings from the city's historic era through its postmodern era, up to a few 1990's/2000's examples.

Broadway Streetscape:
This street runs East/West and is the main thoroughfare of downtown.











Downtown Cityscapes:





Gaslamp Quarter:
The heart of downtown is occupied by about 16 blocks of historic small buildings from the late 1800's to early 1900's, and is the city's most concentrated bar and nightlife area.



















Grand Historic Buildings:
Downtown has a nice but limited collection of structures in Beaux-Arts, Italian and Spanish Revival styles, including those from the Art Deco period; oddly, there are few examples of the Zig-zag Moderne or Streamlined Moderne styles of Art Deco.



































































Midcentury Buildings:
There is a large collection of these, many of them highrises; some are attractive examples of the era while many are typically hostile to the streetscape.











































Late Century Highrises:









































Postmodern Buildings:
Downtown's revival started in the 1980's with the opening of the postmodern Horton Plaza, an outdoor mall and hotel and theater that occupies several blocks adjacent to a restored historic park (which is currently being restored again). Other later small developments nearby can be categorized in the same spirit.

























All photographs taken in 2014 by geomorph.

For my other San Diego threads, see:

Balboa Park - Part 1: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=216147

Balboa Park - Part 2: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=216165

Downtown - Waterfront Part 1: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=216189

Downtown - Waterfront Part 2: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=216200

Downtown - Contemporary Lowrises and Midrises: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=216793

Downtown - Contemporary Highrises: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=216804

University of California, San Diego - Part 1: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=227444

University of California, San Diego - Part 2: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=227488

Last edited by geomorph; May 4, 2017 at 7:29 PM.
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Old Posted Apr 22, 2015, 7:53 PM
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What...the...hell where they thinking? Must be awful to work here with so little light.

I'm a SD native by the way and love the Gaslamp/East Village etc., but cannot stand this particular part of downtown. It's ground zero for brutalist/ugly architecture.
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Old Posted Apr 22, 2015, 9:00 PM
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Originally Posted by destroycreate View Post


What...the...hell where they thinking? Must be awful to work here with so little light.

I'm a SD native by the way and love the Gaslamp/East Village etc., but cannot stand this particular part of downtown. It's ground zero for brutalist/ugly architecture.
Is that a prison? Can't imagine it's an office building.
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Old Posted Apr 22, 2015, 9:16 PM
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this is awesome!

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Old Posted Apr 22, 2015, 10:04 PM
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I had a great time driving in San Diego back in 1990. What a pleasant place to get around in. The canyons and beautifully landscaped roads and pathways were quite stunning for someone used to seeing potholes in his breakfast cereal...

Great old architecture, very sweet job of preservation really. Also, I am an admirer of Horton Plaza, I think it is a very well executed concept mall, perfect for SoCal, and done with good humor and wise proportions.
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Old Posted Apr 22, 2015, 11:29 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by destroycreate View Post


What...the...hell where they thinking? Must be awful to work here with so little light.

I'm a SD native by the way and love the Gaslamp/East Village etc., but cannot stand this particular part of downtown. It's ground zero for brutalist/ugly architecture.
This building is part of the SD jail system and houses inmates.
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Old Posted Apr 23, 2015, 4:49 AM
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Nice pictures! I remember most of these older buildings from when I walked around and took pictures.
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Old Posted Apr 23, 2015, 2:31 PM
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Smile

I´ve liked all the architectural styles in San Diego. The mix of all of them is suprising. I´ve specially liked the historical heart of San Diego, though I must say the mid century, late century and postmodern buildings are amazing too.

Thanks for this tour, geomorph.

Congrats and greetings from Madrid, Spain.
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Old Posted Apr 27, 2015, 4:37 AM
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montrealiste, it is rare for me to hear someone praise Horton Plaza in the last 10 years! It certainly was important for downtown's revitalization in its early years. Unfortunately it has become a mostly second-rate mall, yet has not been replaced by a better option downtown; higher-end shopping has mostly migrated back to the larger malls North of downtown.
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Old Posted Jul 23, 2016, 12:11 AM
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Modern buildings but for some reason I'm not sickened

Does anyone not like San Diego?
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Old Posted Jul 23, 2016, 5:27 AM
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I'm very interested by San Diego. Firstly by the beer, but also the architecture looks great!
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Old Posted Jul 26, 2016, 3:31 PM
subterranean subterranean is online now
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Great looking city.

How common are those divided boulevards in the downtown area?
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Old Posted Jul 27, 2016, 3:07 AM
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subterranean,
Divided streets are not too common in Downtown, except for 11 blocks of Broadway (shown in the thread), 6 blocks of Market, 5 blocks of Park, and most of East Harbor Drive where it runs along the core of Downtown...all in different areas of Downtown. In addition, much of C Street is for a trolley line exclusively, so in a way it is divided.
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Old Posted Jul 27, 2016, 4:35 AM
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I got better and better until it didn't. Excellent tour.
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