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Wednesday, Oct 9, 2024
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NTC Plans Meet High Standards

When it comes to historic rehabilitation, few can claim the credentials of San Diego architect Milford Wayne Donaldson.

A specialist in the field, Donaldson and the McMillin Cos. recently received an award from the California Preservation Foundation for the guidelines developed for treating the historic structures on the former Naval Training Center in Point Loma.

The effort to preserve a core group of 54 structures at the now-closed training base was a result of the Navy’s request about the time it decided to close down the base in 1993. Actual closure occurred in April 1997.

“The Navy wanted to maintain the historic integrity of the buildings, and they asked a citizens committee to come up with an adaptive reuse plan,” said Megan Conley, spokeswoman for McMillin Cos. “NTC is the only existing naval training center on the West Coast, so it’s important for us to maintain these buildings so we can remember what the Navy had here and its significance.”

Donaldson, who has been working on the NTC project for more than six years, said he was gratified by the recognition. “It’s a statewide award and we feel honored to get it,” he said. The local entry was among 19 award winners from about 120 submissions, Donaldson said.

The historic core of buildings includes Luce Auditorium, four officers’ quarters, the admiral’s headquarters, and the USS Recruit, a land-locked full-scale replica of a ship used for training. The buildings were constructed between 1922 and 1949, and exhibit a Spanish colonial revival style, Donaldson said.

The majority of the rehabbed buildings have been set aside for civic, arts and cultural uses, and will be occupied primarily by nonprofit civic groups, Conley said.

McMillin Cos., named the master developer for NTC last June by the city, is set to begin the initial demolition work this week on a project expected to take some five years.

Besides the historic core of rehabilitated buildings, the NTC reuse plan calls for 1,000 hotel rooms; 350 units of single family houses and apartments; office space; retail space and restaurants; educational facilities; and parks.

At build-out, the estimated investment into the site will be about $500 million, Conley said.

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