San Diego over Christmas - Downtown and Balboa Park
 

I was in San Diego over Christmas. Here are some pictures.

My tour started and ended here. I was staying with family members in the suburbs, so I drove in, parked under that skyscraper, and then used the Santa Fe station to hop on and off transit around the central city.


Santa Fe station from the front. You can see a light rail train at right, but covered in shadow.


There will be a second thread focusing on transit. For now let's move on, into the commercial heart of downtown.



From the depot I walked east along Broadway.









Downtown seemed quite healthy overall, but I was dismayed that it does not have any significant squares. I only found one, which took up about 1/3 of a block and was mostly fenced off.



After 9 or 10 blocks I turned south to find Horton Plaza, San Diego's famous retail pavilion.











This is apparently a plastic mock-up of ice. With weather in the 70s they don't get real ice.


East and south of Horton Plaza is the Gaslamp District. Older, shorter, but more fine-grained and probably denser than anywhere else in the city.





I like this building very much. Clearly contemporary, but plenty to look at. Unique, but fits snugly and unpretentiously into its urban context. Excellent filler. The historic building in the background isn't bad either.




I am a fan of color.






















I'm surprised we don't see more of this in our cities. It's hard to tell from the picture, but each panel has part of a large printed picture of a tree. If we're going to have flat glass buildings anyway, why not use them as a canvas?



At some point I turned east again to catch the light rail.





Oh hai, baseball stadium.




At this point I caught the light rail, went back to Santa Fe station, and met up with the family for a tour of the USS Midway (no pictures from that here; maybe another time). While on the deck of the Midway I saw this interesting building. I think it may be city hall, but am not sure. Anyone know?


My sister lives in Escondido. I didn't get much look at the city, but she took me to city hall. It's pretty interesting.





Parks in Escondido:







The next day we went to Balboa Park in San Diego. It was gorgeous; I fear pictures don't do it justice.















































That's all for now. Watch for the transportation thread later.

SD is an underrated city. Beautiful, clean, safe, city with a long history in 3 countries, Spain, Mexico, America.

Bravo!

I was just in Balboa Park this weekend and watched that same metalic-faced troupe preform. Very interesting group.

As for the building you saw from the Midway, that is the County Administration building. The tower has had a giant yellow bow on it to show support for the war effort, and when the Chargers were in the playoffs, they shine blue and yellow lights.

Well done.

4 countries actually, as California was independent for a short time before joining the United States. San Diego is just so damned likeable... and you didn't even show the beach! I love that place.

Wow. Just wow. I love California. AMAZING pictures, thank you.

San Diego certainly is great. I'll most likely be heading there in April for work. Looking forward to it (though I already went there for work last August).

Thanks for posting this photo tour of downtown and Balboa Park!

Omg I'm salivating...totally missing the city I grew up in!

San Diego... hands down my favorite place in the entire universe!

beautiful cirrus, another great thread. you sure get around! kinda curious where you're going to be next! you're just all over the place.

i like how colorful the photos are, and the strong blue sky in the photos. it really makes the photos beautiful.

that area around the stadium seems pretty cool, i like the architecture. but, i like any well designed brand new bustling urban district :). sd seems to have a well developed urban area in it's central city, despite the lack of parks...which i find surprising for a city like sd which is great yearround for being outside and about. definitely no -30°C in sd.

I honestly think that the city thought when they built Balboa Park and Mission Bay Park, that those would be enough for the people.

:rolleyes:

The only downside to San Diego in my opinion is how ridiculously wide the streets are. It sort of takes away from the ambiance of the "urban" feel because the cars drive so fast, and plus there's too many one way streets.

All in all though, I think SD's downtown is one of a kind for a sunbelt city, and it's definitely livable.

Nice pictures. I didn't realize that there was some detail in Horton Plaza. I thought that the whole place was blank walls that were only painted for variety.

Cool photos. I wonder if the lack of plazas is somewhat due to all the accessible areas along the water. Perhaps city planners figured everyone would want to be along the waterfront and wouldn't use more urban plazas? I never really thought about it before, but it's an interesting observation.

I love me some San Diego!