Going Out on a Limb at Beech and 9th : Housing: Ted Smith tries a social experiment in housing in downtown San Diego.

In downtown San Diego, architect Ted Smith’s latest social experiment is on display at 9th Avenue and Beech Street.

Within a single building, Smith has included an amazing array of rental housing, from compact suites to more expansive townhomes.

Smith’s early-1980s “Go Homes” near Del Mar--groups of living suites that shared kitchens and thus qualified as single-family houses--offered affordable living on the edge of a relatively upscale neighborhood.

His new, 8,500-square-foot downtown building, designed in collaboration with Kathy McCormick, has the funky-but-chic look of earlier Smith efforts. It is constructed of white stucco, asphalt roofing shingles in a black, gray and green checkerboard pattern used as exterior siding, concrete and economical aluminum windows, all supported by a wooden frame.

Most of the building’s residents are young singles, including Smith’s son, Zak, and they say they enjoy mingling with their neighbors. (Years ago, a friend of Zak’s coined the nonsensical term “Go Homes.”)

Stairs and balconies between units make it easy for Go Home dwellers to casually drop in on each other.

All ground-floor units have small front porches, forcing residents to interact with the life of the sidewalks out front.

To keep costs low, Smith and McCormick leave the homes relatively unfinished. Residents add walls, furnishings and finish materials to define their raw spaces. Smith and McCormick, who own the building 50-50, pick up the cost of materials and give rent credits for some of the labor.

The homes range in size from a 180-square-foot, high-ceilinged room renting for $250 a month to McCormick’s 1,860-square-foot townhome.

Many of the building’s residents participated in its construction. A significant portion of its $870,000 cost is sweat equity contributed by Smith and McCormick, who managed construction and hammered their share of nails.

Roughly 10 years ago, Smith coined the term “blendo” to describe the way his structures borrow elements from nearby buildings and combine them in fresh ways.

The downtown building has a pair of simple towers that echo the towers just across 9th Avenue at the old El Cortez convention center complex. Windows are placed to continue the rhythms of windows on nearby stucco buildings from the 1940s and 1950s. In proportions and scale, the new structure is also in keeping with its neighbors.

But, although Smith’s buildings look interesting enough from the outside to capture the attention of design awards juries, the real innovations take place within. The new project, which won special recognition as a “Seed” for future innovation in last month’s Orchids & Onions, the local design awards program, offers a fresh approach to mixed housing.

The back portion of the building contains three narrow, four-story townhomes. One is occupied by McCormick, Smith’s longtime romantic and professional partner, who collaborated on the design of this building.

In the asphalt-shingled, front portion of the building are nine smaller “Go Home” suites that share three kitchens. Smith lives and works in one of these. When full, the building will be home to about 16 people.

Though redevelopment officials aren’t known for embracing experimental designs, they may be warming to Smith’s latest effort.

Paul Desrochers, assistant vice president of operations at the Centre City Development Corp., the city of San Diego’s redevelopment division, viewed the project during a recent tour of downtown.

“Someone pointed it out, and they said, ‘What is this?’ I said, ‘I don’t know what it is.’ But, after we got out and looked at it, it’s kind of unique, and it grows on you,” Desrochers said.

“In 20 years, I hope Centre City will not look like it has risen out of the ashes, like Orange County or University Towne Centre, that it has real character, that buildings don’t all look alike.

“I love the way, on the back of this building, those doors slide open. Those kinds of funky little features make up the character of the city, and we certainly don’t want to use a cookie cutter model for all of Centre City. That would be a mistake.”

Because the Go Homes can’t easily be categorized as conventional condominiums or apartments, bankers are skeptical and appraise them conservatively, making financing difficult.

Shared kitchens are essential to Go Homes. Zoning regulators count residential units in part by counting kitchens. With shared kitchens, Smith gets more living suites onto a given piece of property than in a conventional one-unit, one-kitchen design.

Because of Smith’s new take on building codes, inspectors give extra scrutiny to his projects.

Neighbors living in expensive homes near various Go Homes south of Del Mar have consistently griped that such moderate-cost housing might detract from the value of their homes, even though Smith’s buildings are well-suited to their settings.

On Cortez Hill, the setting is gritty, not ritzy, and the new Go Homes seem right at home in this area of older hotels and apartments, a Denny’s and a neighborhood market.

Smith’s experiments may provoke skeptical reactions, but those who follow his work give him credit for the courage it takes to try something new.

“I’ve found myself admiring his efforts more and more over the years,” said San Diego architect Rob Quigley, who is also known for taking chances. “Most of the other architects I know are working with very predictable models, trying to make them more wonderful from an aesthetic standpoint.

“Ted’s one of the few people experimenting with fundamental new housing types, and it’s a very courageous move. I get upset when I see the mindless criticism he’s received from some quarters. What it gets down to is that the building’s not finished in their terms. He doesn’t have blinds on the windows yet, and the doors aren’t trimmed out. That seems to be what’s so offensive, which is a very superficial aspect of what Ted’s up to.”

Go Homes might be a bit rough around the edges, but they point the way toward future downtown housing on a smaller scale, designed to serve artists and others of modest means who want to live in a sociable, family-like setting.