Center Could Take Area to New Heights : Development: Architect Rob Quigley has worked with the people of Sherman Heights to design a community center that is expected to counter the neighborhood’s troubled reputation.

Mention “design by committee” and watch an architect take off like Bo Jackson. Yet in Sherman Heights, southeast of downtown, a community workshop process didn’t scare away architect Rob Quigley. He incorporated a dizzying array of ideas and emotions into one of his most interesting designs yet.

The planned new community center, a subtle mix of old and new with an inviting aura Quigley hasn’t quite captured before, will be a welcomed gem in its rough setting.

Construction is expected to begin later this year. The project appears to have unanimous San Diego City Council support for both funding and design, according to Bill Harris, a representative for City Councilman Wes Pratt, whose 4th District includes Sherman Heights.

For longtime community residents, the project is a joyous note after years of doldrums.

“It’s appropriate to say it will be the best new building project here in probably 60 years,” said Dave Swarens, who has lived in Sherman Heights since 1980. (The neighborhood was founded in the 1860s by Matthew Sherman, an entrepreneur and associate of Alonzo Horton.)

Swarens participated in the development and design of the new center as a member of the Sherman Heights Community Center’s board. “It’ll be the first time since World War II that a new building has been built with dedication to anything other than a quick buck, to the quality of life and character of the community.”

The 80s weren’t kind to Sherman Heights, situated east of downtown San Diego and south of California 94.

Problems with drugs and prostitution existed, but the media played them up while tending to overlook the community’s historic importance to San Diego and its rich cultural heritage. About 70% of its population is Latino, according to the 1980 census, but neighborhoods also include blacks, whites, Pacific Islanders and Asians.

As its image tarnished, residents say Sherman Heights became a “dumping ground” for social service agencies moved to make way for downtown development.

A restaurant row along 16th Street died out, replaced with a variety of social service agencies including the Joan Kroc St. Vincent de Paul Center.

The ultimate slap in the face came in 1984, when developer Chris Mortensen purchased the once-grand 1887 Victorian at 24th and J streets, known as the Livingston house, and moved it to an oceanfront lot in Coronado. Residents felt practically as if they had lost a child.

“The removal of the house was a big setback,” said Vykki Mende Gray, a 10-year Sherman Heights resident and president of the community center’s board. “That was one of the things that started making things head downhill.”

The house was replaced with what Swarens called a “large, ugly apartment building with a mansard roof.”

Community members began talking about a new community center a few years ago, but it wasn’t until a corporate benefactor stepped in that the idea began to seem real.

Through a city/county reinvestment task force aimed at channeling corporate dollars into needy areas, officials from Dayton Hudson, owners of Target and Mervyn’s stores, heard about Sherman Heights.

Eventually, they pledged $1 million as an endowment to run a new community center. To date, the company has also given about $150,000 toward administering the center in its temporary quarters. So far, $480,000 in federal Community Development Block Grant money has gone into the project--including the purchase of the property--channeled through the city of San Diego. The city manager has recommended council approval of $1.7 million in CDBG funds to build the new center.

The property, on Island Avenue across from the 100-year-old Sherman Elementary School, includes a rundown pocket park and a Victorian house.

The house will be restored as offices for a variety of social service organizations. The park, tucked back from the street, has been a haven for drug dealers and users. By shifting it to a high-visibility location in front of the new center, Quigley hopes it will be reclaimed by the neighborhood.

Community leaders interviewed several architects before hiring Quigley, who teamed up with his staff project manager, Maryanne Welton.

The building evolved through a series of hands-on community design workshops, with schoolchildren and Gray Panthers alike sketching their visions on butcher paper and building models out of clay.

“The board was adamant about the workshop process,” Quigley said. “We were willing and enthusiastic.” The noted architect has received community input on other public projects, but never to this extent, he said.

With so many ideas swirling, the architect had to reconcile paradoxical ideas, while helping residents pare down an unrealistic wish list, which once included a swimming pool and a mandate for no on-site parking.

“As soon as we asked them to prioritize, they got very realistic,” Quigley said. A handful of key concepts emerged: the importance of relating indoor and outdoor spaces, hints of Hispanic architecture such as courtyards and arches, and having the building duplicate the tall profile of the area’s Victorian homes.

Quigley was enchanted with the imaginative ideas that evolved from the workshops.

“You wouldn’t get requests like that if you filtered the design through more sophisticated mechanisms,” he said.

His design also pays homage to early 20th-Century architect Irving Gill, who designed some of his first San Diego buildings in Sherman Heights and reportedly lived in a house of his own design on 25th Street.

Tilt-up concrete construction, similar to the method Gill used on his La Jolla Women’s Club, will form the front of the new community center.

The entry walk will pass between a Gill-like pergola and an arched porch opening also reminiscent of Gill’s work. Quigley hopes the generous front porch and garden will become informal community gathering spots.

As Gill intended for his buildings, Quigley said, the front of the community center will eventually “disappear” beneath flowering vines, which will creep up the concrete front walls.

A gabled roof will cap the complex with a traditional residential form, but its metal covering will add an unconventional twist.

Within the two-story building’s 12,500 square feet will be a large multipurpose room, meeting rooms, kitchens, classrooms and, perhaps most importantly, a new child-care center with a capacity for 60 children.

For Quigley, the workshop process has produced some of his best work.

Entirely missing are the exterior frills that detracted from some of his earlier projects. He has given the community a building that is at once contemporary and nostalgic.

By listening to the common logic of a few lay “designers,” Quigley has brought a new warmth to his work.

DESIGN NOTES: Last week’s article on library designs incorrectly identified Otay Mesa library architect Wally Gordon as a staffer at Bradshaw/Bundy + Thomspon. Gordon works at Deems Lewis McKinley.