interesting op-ed piece:
Ugly, metal warehouse on the bay? I think not!
UNION-TRIBUNE
August 26, 2007
Cargo containers, those long steel boxes designed to be loaded on ships and freight trains, enjoy a curious popularity in some quarters.
A lot of folks in the backcountry like to use them as storage sheds – big, ugly storage sheds. But neighbors complained so much about these hulking metal eyesores that a law was passed banishing them from front yards.
In San Diego, we think of the waterfront as our front yard. So it came as something of a shock this month when the Port Commission decided that Broadway Pier would be the perfect place to plop down the equivalent of a humongous cargo container.
In fairness to Port officials, none of them use the term “humongous cargo container.” They prefer “pre-engineered metal building.” Same thing, I say.
The metal structure they have in mind would be about 40 feet high, 70 feet wide and 400 feet long. It would serve as a second cruise ship terminal, a place for seafaring tourists to disembark with bulging wallets and return, hours later, with bulging shopping bags.
AdvertisementPort commissioners approved the idea knowing little more about the structure than what you now do. There are no designs, just a sketch of what looks like a sinister warehouse, the sort where hostages are held in kung fu movies.
Bear in mind, this site is at the foot of downtown, with our sparkling bay as its backdrop.
Compounding the indignity, the Port says this tin monstrosity will be a permanent addition to the waterfront, not, as earlier claimed, a temporary structure to be torn down once the B Street terminal is remodeled.
Then there's this: Whenever a cruise ship is in port, which at a minimum means every weekend from September to May, the pier would be closed to the public for security purposes. So expectations that Broadway Pier would soon provide downtown some much-needed open space have been dashed.
And wait, it gets even better: Construction must begin in January. So a Miami architect is racing against the clock to design in months something that San Diegans will have to live with for decades.
The architect does not have a big budget. But Rita Vandergaw, the Port's director of marketing, said that an awful lot can be done with paint and colored lighting.
“Your imagination can run wild with this,” Vandergaw said to me, inviting trouble.
Before that happens, I should point out that others have been imagining the future of the waterfront for many years, and at no point did their imaginings include this pre-engineered metal building.
Rather, they imagined Broadway Pier as a public open space with a platform for viewing San Diego Bay and for peering down Broadway into the heart of the city.
The thinking was that if the Padres ever won the World Series, the victory parade would proceed down a skyscraper-lined Broadway and finish up at the pier, where adoring fans would cheer the world champions in a public plaza.
Port officials evidently imagine that parade a little differently: a long line of convertibles being driven to a chop shop.
Now, normally I avoid reading any document with the word “visionary” in its title.
But the best ideas for Broadway Pier are spelled out in the North Embarcadero Visionary Plan, a $228 million waterfront master plan that the city and the Port have approved already.
Apparently when the Port gave its approval, its fingers were crossed.
Included is a conceptual design for Broadway Pier that has been around for about five years. It shows a golden pier where people stroll among decorative silver towers, some of which are topped with tall silver plumes like you might see on dancers in a floor show at the Copacabana.
It's not my cup of tea, but neither is a patchwork of garage doors, no matter how colorfully they are painted.
Vandergaw and I looked at the conceptual design together.
“It was just an illustration,” she explained. “People believe that that was what was promised, but it's just an illustration.”
Port communications director Irene McCormack looked at the drawing and, in the scolding tone that a dog owner uses to admonish a pet, said, “Bad drawing.”
I'm glad we can keep a sense of humor through what seems to be another example of shoddy planning in San Diego.
It's in that spirit that I've taken up Vandergaw on her offer and let my imagination run wild:
I see a metal warehouse on Broadway Pier. I see 3-foot-high letters painted on both sides. I see these words: “We consider this building worthy of San Diego Bay,” followed by the names of every port commissioner who voted for it.
Build it my way, and I see it coming down within a couple of years.
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