A Good Idea That Needs Work : Design: Plans for the Del Mar community center capture the flavor of the city, but fail to really invite the public inside.

When New York architect Robert A. M. Stern was selected in December to design a new Del Mar community center, the big question seemed to be how he would live up to his promise to meld into his design enough local stylistic elements to satisfy the finicky community without making the building a theme park collage of borrowed parts.

Now, midway through the design process, the proposed center’s brick, stucco, wood and shingle-roofed buildings arranged around open-air plazas softened by vine-covered pergolas look distinctive enough to have an identity, yet homey enough to pass local scrutiny when they are put to a public vote in November.

The $4.8-million, 26,000-square-foot complex is to be built on 1.6 acres on the west side of Camino del Mar in the city’s business district, between 10th and 11th streets. Stern’s plan includes three main buildings: a city hall, a library and a community meeting center to be used by the City Council and other government and community groups.

As it turns out, the major challenges facing Stern, partner Graham Wyatt and associated architects Bokal Kelley-Markham of Del Mar involve the layout and design of public spaces in and around the complex, as well as the placement, height and symbolism of a tower at a key corner of the project.

Stern, the project’s lead designer, is the internationally acclaimed architect known to the public as the host of the 1986 public television series “Pride of Place.” To architects, he is known for blending his houses and other buildings into diverse settings by incorporating local forms and materials in the designs.

Stern came to town for the first of four public workshops on the project in late March, and he and the other architects were back in front of citizens and local officials for a second workshop last week, presenting a more refined version of their design.

At this point in the design process, the complex would have the City Hall at the northeast corner of the site--at Camino del Mar and 11th Street--the library at the southeast corner--at 10th and Camino del Mar--and the meeting hall at the back of a significant public plaza between the other two buildings.

To dramatize the civic importance of the complex, the architects have angled the front facades of the City Hall and library slightly away from the street, differentiating them from the straight line of nearby storefronts.

In addition, a corner plaza in front of the City Hall, as well as a low tower above the building, would help call attention to this important focal point of the center.

You don’t have to be an architect to see where the design’s rough spots are. Several Del Mar residents pointed them out during the most recent meeting.

They wanted to know how Stern and company will refine the corner plaza, the project’s most visible public space, and they wondered why the tower above their City Hall doesn’t have a clearly defined purpose. The architects responded that it draws attention to the corner, although it is slightly set back. The architects also said the tower would house mechanical equipment, which seemed to some locals like a lost opportunity for a scenic lookout.

The center’s critics points are well taken. A civic center is any city’s most important building. It stands as the symbol of local government, and the ways it addresses citizens set the tone for a community’s image, spirit and sense of communal purpose.

But Stern’s design, although sensitive to the context, is not yet refined enough to serve these higher symbolic and humanistic needs.

Stern’s tower miscommunicates. It is the project’s tallest and most visible element, but it isn’t the actual entry, which is in the middle of the City Hall building, nor does it have a functional purpose that relates to the internal use of the building.

In addition, the architects moved the building back to shoehorn in a plaza at 11th and Camino del Mar, which locals requested at the March workshop. In the existing plan, this outdoor space seems isolated from the rest of the complex, tucked in a corner crook of the City Hall building. It is not the grand and lively public place this complex requires and deserves.

At last week’s meeting, several observers noted examples of nearby corners that have had varying degrees of success: The corner plaza next to the new Inn L’Auberge in Del Mar at 15th Street and Camino del Mar is not being used much, while, ACROSS THE Street, the broad stretch of sidewalk at the corner next to the Del Mar Plaza shopping complex is constantly busy.

There are reasons for the differences in appeal. The hotel’s plaza is sunken, not visible from the sidewalk. Pedestrians and motorists aren’t invited to take a closer look, and those who do wander in and sit down on the steps of a small concrete amphitheater can’t see the parade of people and cars at street level--the kind of action that makes a public space an entertaining place to be.

The Del Mar Plaza corner, by contrast, is wide open, next to the street, running past several shop windows that make for good browsing. And the shopping center’s entry steps are clearly visible from this corner.

The design for the Del Mar civic center’s corner plaza does not have this kind of lively warmth. According to the existing plans, it is below the level of the street and sidewalk--posing a visibility problem--and there is no strong connection between this corner “front porch” and the arched City Hall entry farther down the block.

Other lessons can be learned from civic centers in Oceanside and Escondido, both of which use the most prominent corners of their sites as grand public entries.

In Escondido, architects Charles Slert and Randy Dalrymple incorporated a latticed dome to mark the entry court--the most visible symbol marks the most important part of the building. In Oceanside, architect Charles Moore gave the new Civic Center’s most significant corner the project’s most dramatic features--an “alluvial fan” of water flowing over a collage of colored tile into a fountain surrounded by rows of palm trees.

Del Mar’s civic center design doesn’t yet have this kind of symbolic drama and functional clarity, but it could and should.

Not only should the tower and corner plaza be refined, but, when the design is finished, the plaza should be equipped with plenty of places to sit, interesting art and landscaping, maybe even a water feature if water availability permits.

Stern and the rest of the design team will return to Del Mar for the third workshop with their next set of design revisions May 18. The public presentation of the final design is scheduled June 26. The workshops, all open to the public, are held in the studio of cable TV Channel 38 in downtown Del Mar and are broadcast live. Viewers can phone in with comments.