Input Put a Better Face on 2 Coastal Hotels

Some architects would rather face a school of hungry sharks than the layers of design review most projects go through these days. In particular, designing buildings along the coast, where local sentiments run especially deep, can be a touchy process.

Yet two elegant new oceanfront hotels--the Sheraton Grande at Torrey Pines in La Jolla and L’Auberge Del Mar--prove that extensive design review can produce better buildings. Feedback from local government and community factions helped, in both cases, to produce thoughtfully designed hotels with minimal impact on San Diego’s precious coastline.

Overall, L’Auberge Del Mar is the more successful design. Inside and out, it conveys a low-key, homey warmth through intimate scale and materials such as brick and wood shingles and beams. The Sheraton, by contrast, is a sound, modern building that suffers from a few lapses in detailing. Rooftop vents and air-conditioning equipment, for example, are eyesores to motorists on North Torrey Pines Road. An exterior of white stucco and reflective glass makes the place about as inviting as a hospital.

A significant portion of L’Auberge’s sensitive design is directly attributable to concerned Del Mar citizens and politicians. Architects Jim Galvin and Joe Cristilli of Galvin Cristilli Architects spent four years refining the project to meet the community’s desires. The $30-million, 123-room hotel, which opened in July of last year, was subject to voter approval. It didn’t pass until its second time on the ballot in February, 1988.

The city had good reason to proceed with caution. The hotel site is a key downtown corner at 15th Street and Camino Del Mar, where other corners are occupied by a bank, the new Del Mar Plaza retail complex and Stratford Square, a 1927 Tudor-style building. Strong traditions came with the location. Many locals fondly remember the 1909 Tudor-style Inn at Del Mar that was torn down in 1969.

But Galvin and Cristilli’s new hotel suits downtown Del Mar well, even though its Tudor-based design has a contemporary flair.

L’Auberge takes many of its cues from Stratford Square, which houses the popular Carlos & Annie’s Cafe. Steep, gabled roofs and tan stucco walls make the two buildings cousins. But the architects did not imitate Stratford Square’s Tudor half-timbering with its vertical, horizontal and diagonal boards applied to exterior walls that give an appearance dating back to 16th-Century England.

City officials and citizens were as concerned about the new hotel’s siting and size as they were about its style. Set back generously from the street, with parking well concealed underground, the hotel is a gentle presence. Wood trellises shade public areas and soften the hotel’s visual impact. Lots of brick adds to the Old World atmosphere.

A retail annex and the hotel’s main restaurant are both near the street. These public attractions also make the hotel an especially good neighbor.

The key corner of the project--at 15th and Camino Del Mar--is essentially an offering to the citizens of the city, and comes complete with a small concrete amphitheater. A park-like pedestrian entrance is enhanced by a man-made stream and waterfall, which mask the din of nearby traffic.

Cars reach the project via driveways slightly removed from the corner, thereby keeping the pedestrian entrance clear. And hotel rooms are arranged in three wings, which are aligned with neighboring blocks of condominiums to the west in order to save view corridors.

Inside the hotel’s main entry off Camino Del Mar a gabled, glassed roof floods the lobby with natural light. Overstuffed chairs, a Citizen Kane-sized brick fireplace and big ceiling beams painted with a delicate floral pattern give the place a country-style charm.

The $60-million, 400-room Sheraton, which opened in November at the edge of Torrey Pines Golf Course near UC San Diego, could use more of L’Auberge Del Mar’s careful detailing, especially on the exterior.

Architects Welton Becket Associates of Santa Monica gave the building a stark front of white stucco and copper-colored reflective-glass windows with green mullions. With its wide concrete driveways, the Sheraton looks more like an office building than a place you’d want to spend a relaxing weekend. By contrast, the pocket decks, patios and outdoor public dining areas visible around the edges of L’Auberge Del Mar make it immediately inviting.

In its favor, however, the Sheraton makes only a minimal impact on its coastal bluff site.

Fearful of the crash danger posed by ocean-borne fighter jets leaving Miramar Naval Air Station a few miles inland, the Navy played a key role in dictating the hotel’s low profile. Designed for maximum safety, the structure is partly embedded in the bluff, with several key meeting rooms and a main restaurant on lower floors.

Further, the University City Planning Group served as a watchdog during the design process, making sure the hotel would suit its site and surroundings.

Architecturally, the Sheraton borrows from its neighbor, Scripps Clinic, which was designed by Edward Durell Stone in the 1970s, as well as the Salk Institute, architect Louis Kahn’s 1960s concrete masterpiece. The hotel’s pattern of square windows vaguely echoes the squares of Scripps Clinic’s exterior. Rooms in the hotel’s wings are angled to capture fantastic views of the golf course and ocean, in the same way that the Salk Institute’s labs and offices gain their views.

The hotel is laid out with four wings strung behind the long front building, which houses the lobby and main hallways. Between the wings, three large terraces provide great ocean views. A pool in the middle courtyard is surrounded by classical stone railings with large concrete posts topped with flower-filled urns.

Inside, the Sheraton is a mixed bag. A high-beamed ceiling over the grand lobby makes the space as comfortable as a Rocky Mountain ski lodge. At the back of this impressive space, wide stairs descend to the Torreyana Grille restaurant. Nearby, a curving wall of glass provides light and great views of a pool and formal terrace outside.

The Sheraton is decorated in a vaguely Southwestern style with expensive materials and furnishings, including slate floors, marble-topped counters and odd metal lighting fixtures in the form of gnarled shrubs. A provocative art collection ranges from abstract and figurative pieces to wiry metal coyotes poised in niches. Sometimes the materials get too glitzy, as with the the gigantic, copper-trimmed fireplace and the mirrors behind overhead planters.

Both hotels compare favorably with the best of San Diego’s new hotels downtown, as well as in the Golden Triangle near University Towne Centre.

Both hotels compare favorably with the best of the new hotels downtown and in the Golden Triangle area, near University Towne Center. And both prove that when architects lend an ear to outside opinions, they can create buildings that please both their users and their neighbors.

Canceled: Because of limited audience response, a symposium on Frank Lloyd Wright scheduled for Sept. 15 has been canceled. The program, organized by the San Diego Architectural Foundation and sponsored by the foundation and the San Diego Museum of Art, will not be rescheduled. Tickets can be refunded through Ticketmaster.