Bridge and Life Sci Complex Among Architecture Awardees

A $146 million Torrey Pines life science complex, a pedestrian bridge beneath a freeway overpass that crosses a lagoon, and a new amphitheater at the University of California San Diego, were among projects heralded by the San Diego Architectural Foundation in its annual Orchids & Onions program.

SDGE utility boxes and city bike lanes were among projects snubbed with onion awards.

Winning the People’s Choice award was Callan Ridge, a $146 million life science complex of two buildings totaling 185,000 square feet in Healthpeak Properties’ Torrey Pines Science Park.

Designed by Feguson Pape Baldwin Architects, with San Diego offices in Kearny Mesa, Callan Ridge’s key features include a grand staircase, a green roof, a soaring steel canopy with integrated photovoltaic cells, and recycled content in the steel and concrete used in the building’s construction.

“The design team did an incredible job creating a retreat-like setting in which the architecture really harmonizes with the surrounding Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve,” said Michael Dorris, senior vice president of Healthpeak Properties.

Safdie Rabines Architects, based in Mission Hills, collected Orchids for the Epstein Family Amphitheater at the University of California San Diego and the San Elijo Lagoon Pedestrian Bridge that spans the lagoon, hanging from Interstate 5.

Sculptural Flow

Designed to be part of a new front door for the university at the trolley Blue Line stop, the $67.9-million amphitheater, with 2,850 seats, was praised by foundation judges as “a beacon to folks who want to enter the campus and begin to discover what UCSD has to offer.”

Judges praised the 350-foot-long bridge for “its floating structure.”

“There’s something like a sculptural flow to it, more sculpture than structure,” the judges wrote.

The bridge is part of the Caltrans Interstate 5 North Coast Corridor Project that includes new walking and biking trails connecting Encinitas and Solana Beach, and a 1.5-mile double-track rail.

“It means a great deal to us to see the San Elijo Lagoon Pedestrian Bridge and the Epstein Amphitheater enjoyed by the people who visit these new public spaces in San Diego,” said Ricardo Rabines, partner and co-founder of Safdie Rabines Architects.

Also receiving orchids for architecture were the Denny Sanford Wildlife Explorers Base Camp at the San Diego Zoo, designed by HGW Architecture based in Ocean Beach, and Los Patios mixed-use project in Barrio Logan, designed by Kate Meairs and Hector Perez.

Jurors wrote that the $88-million Basecamp was “absolutely thrilling.”

“This is where kids are going to get educated. It’s not a video game,” jurors wrote. “It’s exciting to be there. It never seems to be the same place twice.”

The 3.2-acre site has eight buildings and four distinct habitats – Rainforest, Wild Woods, Marsh Meadows and Desert Dunes.

Built on what had been a vacant lot, Los Patios was cited by judges for its “exciting, joyful, pleasing colors,” with a façade of white, red, orange, green, pink and blue.

“We often see the word ‘community’ overused, but it truly seems to apply here,” the judges wrote. “The architecture also reflects the vibrancy and diversity of the neighborhood.”

Onions

SDG&E’s utility boxes were panned for sometimes being in the middle of sidewalks.

“Why do we keep talking about utility boxes? Because city engineering and SDG&E don’t understand pedestrians or the right-of-way or the value of public space,” the judges wrote. “They see a sidewalk for utilities rather than for a place for people and they can’t even put them in squarely.”

Also snubbed were city bike lanes for narrowing streets without adding more landscaping and the Balboa Theater paint job that created “blinding white walls,” and Gallagher Square as redesigned by the Padres.