Hey, I am a Rangers fan. I even have a jersey... the only MLB in my closet. For football.. the Dallas Cowboys.

I knew I liked you!! :)

I never liked that guy anyways. :yuck:

Thought you guys would dig this story...a little jab in the face of those that cannot imagine innovative uses for traditional use buildings. In this case (libraries). The same goes for our other civic buildings, what a downtown stadium might entail, etc. Think outside the box, demand excellence and function above all, and good design can occur that makes all these types of projects very valuable to our city.

http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture...e-cities-8596/

You've obviously haven't been to many cities have you? Have you been to Phoenix? Houston? Dallas? Atlanta? Florida cities?:yuck: The lunar landscape is more vibrant and inviting than those places.

I'm not saying SD is perfect but trust me, we're better off than 90% of the cities out there and I'm not even counting foreign countries either. Our city center is the envy of most of the nation. Here's a recent East Coaster's photo thread on our city. I'm pretty sure he was impressed.
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...14#post4729714


You seem hellbent on hoping the stadium will never get built even if it were free. Even with the stadium's large footprint in the East Village there is still a lot of room to build those "dense lowrise row homes" you speak of. Core, Columbia, City College area, across the 5 into Sherman Heights, South Park, Barrio Logan etc. Not to mention there's still a lot of buildable lots in East Village remaining.

:dead:

Hey...YOO HOO...Diegans...even though we are both sharing in the best weather in the country, lets see some updates! I live in a desert. I want to see the ocean and palm trees and new development.

I miss SD. I used to go to Roosevelt Jr. High School (next to the zoo). Anything new in Hillcrest?

Well ThreeHundred to be honest, with the recession and everything, there's not much going on.

I guess the urban community project in Otay has a name and a website:

"Millenia" ~ http://www.milleniasd.com/

That is a very nice development. Very Urban feel to it, in the heart of sprawl cit out in east chula vista. I like it a lot and hope it gets built.

That was an awesome photo thread. The poster made a comment that there are no major squares downtown, which I have also noticed. Does anyone know why, besides a for a lack of planning, no public squares were built downtown? A place like Union Square in SF could be a great addition to our DT.

CCC to Port of San Diego on N. Embarcadero: Come back in April
 

The California Coastal Commission asked the Unified Port of San Diego, city and Coastal Commission staff to come back in April with revised plans to move forward with the first phase of North Embarcadero improvements surrounding the Harbor Drive and Broadway intersection. The estimated $28 million project connecting the bay front to downtown could bring approximately 400 jobs to the area.

The port’s proposed North Embarcadero Visionary Plan includes moving Harbor Drive 40 feet to the east, building an esplanade from B Street Pjier to the former Navy Pier along Harbor Drive, public art displays, tree groves and open spaces, among other developments, according to port plans.

Coastal Commission staff recommended denying a coastal development permit because of changes to original plans, which call for a large oval park at the foot of West Broadway at Harbor Drive. Staff also cited an overall lack of parking in the proposed plans, according to Coastal Commission staff reports. California Coastal Commissioners sent the project back to planners during a February Coastal Commission public appeal hearing.

“[Port] staff is going to be meeting with Coastal Commission staff to try to work out something agreeable … that would be a benefit to the area and add a nice feature and enhancement,” said Unified Port of San Diego spokesman John Gilmore.

What that final plan would look like is still unclear.

As the project inches forward, funding falls to the city and the port. The Unified Port of San Diego and the City of San Diego’s Redevelopment Agency through the Center City Development Corporation (CCDC) plan to split the cost for the project, according to port officials.

The first phase of the North Embarcadero Visionary Plan is part of an overall Port Master Plan aimed at developing the bay front along Harbor Drive and port tidelands with public spaces and furniture, marine terminal uses, tens of thousands of square feet of park space and other amenities resulting from a years-long public design and planning process.

The big plan also calls for projects like the Broadway Cruise Ship Terminal, a Navy complex, redevelopments of Lane Field just north of Broadway and the addition of the new 3.5 acre Ruocco Park, all near the intersection of Harbor Drive and West Broadway.

Michael McDade, former chair of an initial planning group comprised of local government agencies called the North Embarcadero Alliance, said this current phase would boost the state and national economy.

“[The North Embarcadero Visionary Plan Phase one] is in San Diego but it’s not for San Diegans. This is a major public entity for the United States and for California in particular. Millions of people will visit this park,” McDade said to commissioners at the meeting.

He added that if stalled, the project could “go away.”

But plans keep changing, said Point Loma resident Katheryn Rhodes. Rhodes appealed to the Coastal Commission about the project. Some California Coastal Commissioners also took issue with the project because of what some called piece-meal planning. Amendments to the plan are made implicitly through approval of other projects such as the Cruise Ship Terminal approved last year. The terminal could preclude the oval park at the foot of Broadway to make room for traffic.

“It looks like the Coastal Commission is holding [Unified Port of San Diego’s] feet to the fire and not letting them do this whole piece-meal thing,” Rhodes said.

Rhodes also pointed to a “presumed active” fault system beneath Port Tidelands. If ever confirmed, the fault system could preclude certain types of development, she said. However, port and city authorities show no signs of testing for fault activity.

The California Coastal Commission is set to decide on the project when commissioners convene April 14 through 16 at the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, 800 South Victoria Ave., in Ventura.

Details of the North Embarcadero Visionary Plan Phase one can be found at the Unified Port of San Diego’s Web site www.portofsandiego.org.

Read more: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2010-03...#ixzz0hWIQx6SY

I was thinking the same thing. I think Horton Plaza and the Square in front of it sort of replaced anything that could have been like it. If there was no horton plaza, the department stores and shops would have been dispersed in the immediate area and there would have been a Union Square type thing. That would have been better than Horton Plaza imo but whatever. The NBC could have had a decent square thing. I have just resigned to the fact that San Diego simply lacks those sort of big city elements and probably won't ever have them. :(

To at least somewhat rectify the problem at Horton Squares, a major restaurant or retailer should be placed in the space formerly occupied by Planet Hollywood. It seems as though that would make people want to go into that area and not be scared away by the copious amounts of homeless who loiter in that area.

This is true, however, one should note that no matter where one goes, there are "copious amounts of homeless" especially in the previous example of Union Square. If I had a dollar for every time I was asked for money in a 4 block walk I would have made a considerable amount of cash.

Actually, there used to be a Dept store(I think it was Robinson's) in that spot,but that didn't stop the homeless.

So...how 'bout them Chargers??

Chargers? Meh. The management is annoying me. Badly. I can't believe LT signed with the Jets...

ULI Student Design Competition Renderings
 

Thought this was really interesting. This year's ULI's annual student urban design competition used a hypothetical development area in San Diego's East Village.

The site the teams had to study and propose development plans for is an area bounded by Park, C St., Market and the 5. The competition selected four finalists. I looked through some of the entries (for greater detail see: http://www.udcompetition.uli.org/finalists).

I think some of these are the more noteworthy images from the proposals so far. The winner is selected in April. Even though this is purely a design exercise, its nice to see some new conceptual drawings for that area.

Harvard Team Area Massing
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4049/...a931f63f6b.jpg

Harvard Team Promenade Rendering
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4001/...b70ba39079.jpg

North Carolina Team Area Massing
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2798/...edc916c3c0.jpg

North Carolina Team Central Park Rendering
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4063/...8966f153_o.jpg

U Penn Public Square Rendering
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2795/...87b7e49201.jpg

That looks amazing. Wow. Too bad it's just for fun. :(

Looks way too suburban for that area. All of the building appear to be no taller than 4 feet, and they don't have real looking streets.

Where is the mixed use?

Whatever, it's not real...