Dirk Sutro Architecture : Apartment Projects Are Neighbors, but Worlds Apart
Downtown San Diego’s two newest apartment projects sit just two blocks from each other, but in design, function and ambition, they are worlds apart.
Architect Rob Quigley’s 600 Front building is dramatic, challenging, at times whimsical, a celebration of San Diego’s climate and sparse architectural heritage. Broad stairways at two corners lead up into the complex through soaring, open-air rotundas. The primary entry on Front is between two tall, smooth wall masses whose curved parapets call to mind the forms of the missions. Each corner and side of the building is distinctive.
By contrast, Market Street Square, just two blocks to the east of Quigley’s project, is a generic multi-unit building plopped in an urban center. Its four sides are blandly similar. There is only one entrance, versus the three that tie 600 Front strongly to the street. Its Disneyland color scheme is a too-sugary attempt to relate the building to the nearby Horton Plaza shopping center.
The two mid-rise (four- and five-story) projects sit between G and Market streets just south of Horton Plaza. Market Street Square, between Third and Fourth avenues, was built by Goldrich & Kest Industries/Shapell Housing Inc. It opened in July, 1987, and very few of its 192 units are empty.
The 180 units at 600 Front went on the market in January and only 19 are vacant. Both projects cost about $12 million. Apparently, one developer is banking on a few extra units, while the other hopes more creative architecture will support his slightly higher rents.
The history of new housing downtown dates to the early ‘80s, when the first pioneering projects opened. Planners have known all along that a substantial residential population is what it takes to turn around a downtown, to make it a people place, even at night. The first projects were the Marina Park and Park Row condominiums. Critics complained that both merely imported suburban condo designs, with little about them that related to a dense urban setting.
Market Street Square is the first attempt by the Centre City Development Corp. (the city agency in charge of downtown redevelopment) to address the need for new rental housing downtown. The developers’ incentive was a substantial break on land: They lease their block from the city for a token $1 per year. As part of their federal grant funding arrangement, they had to make several units available to moderate-income tenants.
By contrast, the land on which 600 Front sits is owned by the developers, and all of the units are market-rate, $490 to $950 a month.
The architecture of Market Street Square isn’t a total write-off. Architects Nadel and Partners and Abraham Shapiro broke the exteriors into smaller geometric masses, which give it human scale. Peaked roofs of varying heights, along with the simple yet varied geometry of the facades, add interest.
To their credit, the developers stuck with the idea of devoting spaces at the street level to retail uses, though these remain empty. In the long run, the CCDC envisions Market and G retail corridors. Meric National & Halenza, developers of 600 Front, decided retail wouldn’t fly just yet; their deal with the CCDC allows them to use the future retail spaces as apartments until they deem the market strong enough to support shops.
The most unfortunate shortcoming of Market Street Square is its boxed-in suburban design, a simple rectangle around a central courtyard, with enclosed corridors giving access to the apartments. Where’s the sunlight? Also, one wonders about city building codes; 7-foot corridor ceilings leave first-time visitors ducking in fear of banging their heads.
Quigley’s design, by contrast, gives all units outdoor “front porches.” This makes for a much friendlier, communal atmosphere.
When it comes to floor plans, Quigley’s building is a developer’s nightmare, but a tenant’s delight. There are more than 70 plans. At Market Street Square, there are three. The variety at 600 Front makes each home more special. In one plan, for example, the edge of the dining room is like the points of a star. Outside the windows, palm trees shoot up from the courtyard below.
Market Street Square architect Pedro Birba thinks he did the best he could given the developer’s priorities. But he looks longingly at the competition.
“Quigley’s project is absolutely brilliant,” Birba said. “However, from what I know, it would have failed to meet my client’s requirements. I hope to God someone gives me the freedom to do something like that sometime in the future.”
According to Judd Halenza, one of 600 Front’s general partners, the CCDC deserves credit for demanding a unique design. They specifically asked for something more innovative than Market Street Square, he said.
Quigley’s office isn’t totally satisfied with the execution of its design. Some of the firm’s architects don’t like the color of the reflective glass, the fact that the building was raised 2 feet to help drainage (making more steps necessary), a fountain made smaller so there’s more room for social functions, and changes in the color scheme.
For his part, Halenza and his partners really stretched to roll with Quigley. Several features that add nothing to the building’s revenue-producing capacity were accepted, including the “stairways to nowhere” at two corners, gestures that beckon the public to pay attention, to participate in the architecture.
As for why G Street isn’t developing into a retail and pedestrian zone, Horton Plaza is partially to blame. Had it been designed with more shops along its outer edge, it could have spilled visitors into the rest of downtown. As it is, they drive into its sheltered parking lot, shop, eat and return to their cars without ever venturing into greater downtown San Diego.
Not all future projects need to be as aggressive as Quigley’s. But to create architecture better suited to San Diego, developers will need to take some chances, like Halenza and company did. And architects will need to remember that they are designing for a downtown in San Diego, Calif., not a Midwestern suburb or some snowy, 200-year-old Eastern city.
DESIGN NOTES: Celebrate Christmas at two historical buildings. From 6 to 8 p.m. Dec. 9, an open house, with huge Christmas tree and Spanish food and music, will be held at the William Templeton Johnson-designed Serra Museum in Presidio Park. Starting Nov. 30, the Villa Montezuma, the San Diego Historical Society’s gingerbread Victorian at 1925 K St., will be decorated for Christmas in authentic Victorian fashion. . . . No action yet on the effort to restore architect Irving Gill’s fountain in Mt. Hope Cemetery. The Historic Site Board will discuss the topic Nov.30. . . . Internationally known fabric designer Jack Lenor Larsen lectures at the Mingei International Museum on Dec. 1. Tickets are $35, including luncheon. . . . The American Society of Landscape Architects’ local chapter presents its annual design awards Dec. 9 at the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater in Balboa Park. Tickets are $35. Call 239-2450 by Monday.
