Thought you might enjoy this photo. I took it last fall, and this year entered it along with 7 other photos into the Del Mar Fair, and it won a 5th place Honorable Mention award! :)
http://chrisaustinphotography.com/ss...tel.jpg?562164

Hurricane, I'll be heading to the Padre/Red Sox game this Saturday, with my 5D of course, so I'll try to get some good shots of the area before and after the game.

I say build 777 Beech. El Cortez is ugly, and that tower can hide its hideousness more. :)

Nice pic, ucsbgaucho!


Sure, the El Cortez isn't the most beautiful or ornate building downtown, but it's probably the most recognizable to us natives. Buildings like this prevent DTSD from looking and feeling like Dubai (or even worse, UTC ;)), where everything is brand spanking new.

I actually love seeing the blinking neon sign at night...

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...isc/cortez.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...z-hotel-1a.jpg

Edited to include some old shots -

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...ntitled1-1.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...untitled-1.jpg

Dallas Tower
 

El Cortez looked better without the "El Cortez" neon sign on it, but it does give that building some character that I do love. ;)

But it definitely could've gone without that hideous parking structure/cafe in front of the entrance.

Nah... That cafe adds character to the area and provides an activity. After all, if the cafe were not there I speculate that there would be little reason to go up to Cortez Hill. What else is there to do up there?

^Good point, and I revise my opinion.


The cafe could've been integrated a little nicer into the building. Notice how there was a nice park in front of the building before.

^^i agree. it's oddly designed...

what does that have to do with anything??:shrug:

hot damn, thats nice. great color, great composition. love it.

Excellent work, ucsbgaucho! :tup:

We were talking about it on the previous page - just guessing, but maybe that's what.

It is a GORGEOUS tower though, and needs to be seen. :worship:

In fact, there is NO penalty for landing aircraft if they use the runway past 11:30pm. The curfew only applies to departing aircraft between 11:30pm and 6:30am.

America West has had a scheduled flight from Las Vegas that gets in around 12:30am. The airline may have recently dropped it, but it has/had operated for a long time, sometimes even being schedule to land after 1:00am.

stupid planes...i live right under the flight path :mad:

Sorry for posting without explaining...had a time crunch. The tower was discussed on a previous page and I have a friend working on the project in Dallas. I just think it's an amazing tower and get frustrated that SD has been unable to produce such fantastic looking towers such as this.

Could add some drama to the skyline in a few years if it goes through. I think it's a great idea! I still think it'd be cool to use the bridge like they do in Louisville for fireworks shows.

Wash of blue light is considered for Coronado bridge

By Janine Zúñiga
STAFF WRITER

June 22, 2007

Lighten up, San Diego.

While it's no Golden Gate Bridge, local public art enthusiasts are hoping to make the San Diego-Coronado Bridge shine – day and night.

The idea – to light the 2.12-mile bridge from underneath – has been quietly shopped around for several months.


San Diego Port District
An artist's rendering depicts the Port of San Diego's Public Art Committee proposal for a blue-tinted San Diego-Coronado Bridge.

San Diego-Coronado Bridge

The bridge opened Aug. 3, 1969.

It cost $47.6 million to build.

It was built with 20,000 tons of steel and 94,000 cubic yards of concrete.

Bridge crews work 24 hours a day, seven days a week to maintain the bridge, including a team of six painters who work from one side to the other and then start all over again.
The Port of San Diego's Public Art Committee is pitching the plan, which is accompanied by an artist's rendering of a blue-tinted Coronado bridge.

“The bridge is already a beautiful icon, but you only see it in the daytime,” said Gaidi Finnie, a member of the Port's art committee. “They are doing such wonderful things with lighting these days. It will be just that much more visible and really something to see.”

If the lights are installed, San Diego would join several cities worldwide illuminating not only bridges and skylines, but roadway medians and walls.

But do all those lights fly in the face of increasing efforts to combat global warming and promote energy efficiency? Catherine Sass, the Port's public art director, said “dramatic changes” in lighting technology make this project more viable than even 10 years ago. The recently “uplighted” Vincent Thomas Bridge at the Port of Los Angeles uses cost-efficient light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, and a solar photovoltaic system.

The Port committee considered several sites for a piece of public art before settling on the bridge-lighting idea. The group discussed 20 other San Diego locations, including the cruise ship terminal area, the Broadway Pier, Harbor Island and the west ends of Grape, Cedar and Ash streets.

Members chose the bridge because it is already a San Diego landmark, can be seen from many locations, is monumental in size and would leave a public art legacy.

Finnie, who is spearheading the effort, made the first public presentation of the idea in Coronado on Tuesday. Coronado is one of at least eight municipalities and agencies that need to approve the project before it can proceed.


San Diego Port District
The Public Art Committee considered 20 other San Diego locations for a piece of public art, including the cruise ship terminal area, the Broadway Pier and Harbor Island, before settling on the San Diego-Coronado Bridge.
Others include the state Department of Transportation, which maintains the bridge; the city of San Diego and its Commission for Arts and Culture; the Navy; the California Highway Patrol; the Coast Guard; the Harbor Police; the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; and other port cities.

“We have to take all concerns into consideration,” Finnie said. “If it's foggy, can you turn the lights off? Can we have more lighting in certain areas for security reasons? There are electric issues on the bridge. Things need to be replaced. We need to form a number of partnerships.”

Finnie said the committee will present the proposal to various groups during the next few months. If the groups are supportive, Finnie said, artist guidelines might be ready early next year. Artists would then submit ideas, cost estimates and, if chosen as finalists, create models for public review. The Port, with comment from the committee and the public, would make the final selection.

Sass said there are no cost estimates yet. She said grants would be the main source of funding for the design, installation, maintenance and electrical costs.

“We would need to ask what this project would solve and go that way with funding,” she said. “There may be highway enhancement grants. There are some special grants the governor has. There may even be arts-oriented or security-oriented grants.”


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Robert Mosher, architect of the San Diego-Coronado Bridge, is advising the committee. He was out of town this week, but committee members said that initially he wasn't keen on the idea of lights.

“But once he got in a dialogue about it, he told us that he originally had a lighting plan and something happened and it was cut,” Sass said. “He got pretty interested in bringing back the idea.”

After this week's presentation, most Coronado city officials, including Port Commissioner Robert “Rocky” Spane, said they liked the lighting idea. Some council members said they were concerned about spending any city funds on public art and about lights being too bright.

“It's a good idea, but it can't be ostentatious because of the residential neighborhoods nearby,” said Mayor Tom Smisek, adding that everyone who has seen the artist's rendering “really liked it.”

Tom Ham, Caltrans' district highway art coordinator, said he hasn't heard any objections to the idea of a lighted bridge. He heard from some agencies that the lighting might improve security, especially at night.

“So far, I haven't heard anything bad, but some people don't like change,” Ham said. “Maybe they like the bridge just fine the way it is.”

The bridge has provoked strong emotions before. When it was proposed, many Coronado residents opposed it. In April 1958, city residents voted 2,224-1,528 against its construction.

And while it was delayed a few more years, former Gov. Edmund G. “Pat” Brown went to Washington and convinced President Lyndon Johnson that the bridge was a good idea. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved the project in 1965.

Then bridge tolls became a sore subject. Tolls were in place when the bridge opened in 1969. After the bonds to build the bridge were paid off in 1986, more than a decade ahead of schedule, toll opponents tried to stop the fees. But residents, fearing more traffic, wanted to keep the tolls in place. City officials struggled to keep the tolls for more than 15 years before they ended in 2002.

As officials consider the plan to bathe it in light, the bridge is approaching its 40th anniversary.

“It would be a wonderful tie-in if it worked out, but it would need to keep progressing at a good rate,” Sass said. “It's an ambitious plan, very ambitious, but not impossible.”

Library researcher Michelle Gilchrist contributed to this report.

^Oh that's a great idea! That would be a very neat addition.


Now if the Harbor Club twin towers could add some light around the tops of thier buildings.

Here's the artist rendering of what the bridge would look like when it's lit up. Looks great to me :tup:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...3/coronado.jpg

New Sony Building to Create United San Diego Campus


Posted: June 22, 2007
From: Kate Hardman

By now, the theme of Sony United is familiar to Sony employees as a means to harness the power of the brand, both within and outside the company. In that spirit, SEL is also taking steps to unite by developing of a new headquarters’ campus that will bring together its San Diego employees in an environment intended to inspire collaboration and innovation.

Today, SEL operates in four buildings in Rancho Bernardo: two owned; two leased. Through the construction of a new 11-storey, 450,000 square foot building, SEL will eliminate the need for leasing and will be able to unite all San Diego employees in three Sony-owned buildings. SEL will also construct a six-storey parking garage with 1,400 spaces.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ing_story2.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ing_story1.jpg



Since SEL moved its headquarters to San Diego in 2004, it was immediately apparent that we needed a headquarters-style building, said Greg Aventi, director, facilities.

“At the moment, for example, we have corporate communications sitting in the middle of an engineering floor,” he said. “It’s far from ideal.”

The new building, which is scheduled for completion by July 2009, will enable SEL to move its corporate functions such as the executive offices, HR, marketing, sales, communications and law into one building, leaving building 7 open for its original purpose – engineering.

“Our engineers have gone from working on 27-inch televisions to 50-, 60- and even 70-inch models,” said Dennis O’Connell, vice president, facilities. “Space for this operation is much-needed.”

With the new building’s construction, SEL joins the trend taking place across Rancho Bernardo, which is evolving from a warehouse environment to one of corporate offices.

Sony has chosen local firms to carry out the work. Carrier Johnson (of 655 Broadway, Hall of Justice, Renaissance and Treo fame) the building 7 architect, has designed the new building and Pacific Building Group and Sun Construction will work together in its construction.

“Every decision, from building the new construction and the investment, to the choice of companies we are working with is a demonstration of Sony’s commitment to the region,” O’Connell said.

Along with a new modern-looking building, employees will also benefit from a new fitness facility and activity deck for outdoor events. The parking structure will house the deck on its roof, connected via a bridge to the fitness facility on the third floor of the new building.

SEL also plans to open up the top floor of the new building as a cafeteria for employees while a large auditorium-style meeting room on the first floor will be available to local non-profit community groups for events.

“We hope the new building will not only attract new talent to the company, but will also motivate today’s employees in providing a destination that people are proud to work in,” Aventi said.

SEL expects to break ground in November. Communications about parking and local issues will be sent out in San Diego Updates.