Ground Breaking Slated Emerald-Shapery Center
New York has its World Trade Center and Empire State Building; Chicago has its Sears Tower, and San Francisco has its Transamerica Pyramid. San Diego will have what may become its signature building in the shape of a cluster of hexagonal prisms.
Ground will be broken in late September or early October on the $132-million Emerald-Shapery Center, an office building with a 497-room hotel that will occupy an entire city block at Broadway, C , State and Columbia streets in downtown San Diego, according to Sandor W. Shapery of Shapery Enterprises, San Diego.
The Tokyu Corp. of Japan, parent company of Hawaii-based Emerald Hotels, will fund the $100 million cost of constructing the mixed-use complex, Shapery said. The project is the most extensive U.S. venture so far for the Japanese trading company, which manufactures the Bullet Train and owns MasterCard in Japan.
Designed by C. W. Kim AIA Architects & Planners, San Diego, the complex will consist of a cluster of emerald-colored hexagonal crystals, varying in height from 18 to 30 stories. It is scheduled for completion late in 1989, Shapery said.
“San Diego is a dynamic city, and we feel this project will further establish it as a world-class city,” according to Nicholas Klotz, president of Emerald Hotels. The chain operates two hotels in Hawaii and has just opened the Emerald of Anaheim near Disneyland.
