Appeal of Salk Project Rejected

The San Diego City Council voted Monday not to hear an appeal to halt a proposed addition to the Salk Institute in La Jolla, one of architect Louis Kahn’s most significant designs.

In May, the city’s Planning Commission approved the $19.6-million, 113,000-square-foot addition, which would be built between the existing building and the gravel parking lot to the east.

Kahn’s daughter, Sue Anne Kahn, and two former Kahn associates--Anne Tyng and Harriet Patterson--filed the appeal in June, urging that the addition be put in a parking lot northwest of the existing building. They hope to preserve the mystical experience of approaching Kahn’s building from the east through a grove of eucalyptus that would be replaced by the addition.

After Monday’s council decision, Sue Anne Kahn vowed to continue the fight through two remaining avenues: personal appeals to Dr. Jonas Salk (the institute’s founder) and a formal appeal to the California Coastal Commission, which still must approve the expansion.

“I think it’s incredible that the council didn’t have the courage to listen to opinions about this,” Kahn said by phone from her home in New York City. “They haven’t had a wide range of opinion. The world does not stop with San Diego, especially when you have a world-renowned masterpiece in your midst.”

The proposed addition, designed by two architects who once worked with Kahn, has generated national interest. Paul Goldberger and Thomas Hine, architecture critics for the New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer, respectively, dedicated their June 23 columns to it. Goldberger derided the addition as “ersatz Kahn” and urged further refinements. Hine favors moving the addition to another location on the site.

San Diego City Architect Mike Stepner had given his blessing to the addition, and at Monday’s council meeting, City Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer, whose district includes the Salk Institute, moved to deny hearing the appeal. The council sided with her in a 5-1 vote. Councilman Ron Roberts, a licensed architect, cast the lone vote in favor of the appeal.

“We have public hearings on the minutest, least-important buildings. To skip something this significant seems out of character for the council,” Roberts said. “This is one of the most important buildings in San Diego because of its architectural heritage, and it may not be fully appreciated by my colleagues.”

Wolfsheimer, who met Kahn in the early 1960s while she was president of the institute’s women’s association, and who once gave guided tours of the building, said she could find no basis for an appeal.

“I went out to see the site and noticed there would be an extensive buffer, a grove, between the old and new buildings,” she said. “The architectural integrity would be preserved. The project has already been through historic preservation designation (by the city’s Historic Site Board), so it is secure in its beauty and history in the future. And the addition had the approval of the planning department, planning commission and various community planning groups.”

Within a week, the Coastal Commission will receive written notice of the city’s action. Opponents of the addition then have 10 days to file their appeal.

“We could not reject an appeal if someone made a reasonable argument, or raised some questions as to the merits of the project,” said Deborah Lee, assistant district director of the commission’s San Diego office.

The 12-member commission meets once a month. The next meeting at which a Salk appeal could be heard takes place Aug. 13-16 in Eureka.