New Project Designed to Be Landmark

On the drawing board for the Golden Triangle is one project guaranteed to focus national attention on the area.

It is a massive $185-million development, but what makes it instantly significant is its designer, Michael Graves. Graves, a Princeton, N.J., architect, is perhaps the most talked about architect in the nation today. He’s the leading exponent of post-modernism, the much-debated trend toward a revival of classical imagery and ornamentation in architecture. And every project he designs is the subject of vigorous debate in architectural circles and the popular press.

To Jack Naiman, the developer of Graves’ Golden Triangle project, his design could become “the most important statement of post-modern architecture of our time.”

Graves is designing a complex in stone and stucco that is to include a 16-story Hyatt Regency Hotel, a 20-story office building, a cylindrical health club building, four restaurants, underground parking for 1,150 cars, and a French formal garden. This will all go on a site at the southeast corner of La Jolla Village Drive and Interstate 5.

In the working drawings now nearing completion, Naiman sees a design filled with historical allusions. There’s a 16th-Century Northern Italian section, complete with pergolas as well as allusions to Hadrian’s Tomb, the Parthenon, and various other bits and pieces of Greek and Roman classical architecture.

“Graves mixes the most important architectural elements and creates a modern synthesis,” Naiman said.

Graves, however, brushes aside talk of classical allusions. “All of that is in it, to be sure, but it’s not a nostalgic piece,” he said from his Princeton office. “It’s something that tries to identify with its place not only in California, but also in that particular climate and on that particular site.”

But there is no mistaking the fact that Graves’ scheme is a dramatic departure from the other high-tech glass and metal structures filling up the Golden Triangle.

“The buildings won’t appear overtly modern to someone who is used to buildings that look like machines,” Graves said. “In the past 20 years we’ve all gotten used to the strip development of office buildings out on the highway that are bands of glass and brick, or bands of glass and stucco, or bands of glass and metal panels, and they attempt to portray a kind of modern life that may or may not be of interest to us. I don’t think it is. In that sense, our buildings are quite different.”

Graves has been called the most original American architect working today. His buildings include the Portland Building in Portland, Ore.; the Humana Inc. headquarters skyscraper in Louisville, Ky., and the San Juan Capistrano Public Library.

To his supporters, he is a genius who is bringing back classical influences without resorting to literal copies of traditional forms. To his detractors, he is a creature of fashion who mixes unrelated images to create skin-deep architecture. Wherever he designs, his buildings become objects of intense debate.

The man behind his Golden Triangle project is Jack Naiman, president of the Naiman Co., a national conglomerate involved in land development, health clubs and real estate.

Naiman already is responsible for one of the most spectacular complexes in the Golden Triangle, the Naiman Technology Center.

The sleek, metal-faced complex is identifiable from Interstate 805 by the 70-foot-tall, bright red sculpture by Alexander Liberman on its front lawn. But behind the main building is its most unusual feature--an expansive Japanese garden with trails meandering among bamboo grottoes, koi ponds and a mondo-grass mound representative of Mt. Fuji. Authentic pagodas house a sushi bar and a health club.

Naiman contends that his Graves project will be an even more stunning statement.

“Graves is creating a new language of architecture,” Naiman said. “You don’t have to like him, but you must accept the fact that his influence will be around for a long time.”

If all goes according to plan, Naiman said, ground will be broken for the project next summer, and it will take 22 months to build.