Making a ‘Great City’

Up to now, San Diego has never been a “great city” in one sense. Great cities all over the world have a common characteristic: timeless buildings which define and reflect a singular sense of style and place.

Many people think that the 1920s and 1930s were a key period in American architecture, when fine and famous buildings were created in places like New York, Chicago and San Francisco.

By this definition, San Diego has not been able to achieve the status of great city. In our early years, we were a small town without the resources to build such buildings. Later, we made the mistake of tearing the heart out of our city in favor of building artificial, satellite suburban centers in places like Mission Valley and the Golden Triangle, where land was cheap and there were no building standards.

Today we are moving into a time of renewal downtown. Today we recognize the importance of developing a city center which defines us, reflects our heritage and makes us proud. Today we have the will and resources to build the great downtown we failed to build in the past. In one sense, San Diego is in a position to create our great “old” buildings today.

In the middle of these changes, the few quality buildings we have preserved downtown stand as a bridge between our past and our future. Buildings which have enjoyed the support of all citizens, such as the County Administration Center and the Santa Fe Depot, should serve as templates upon which surrounding buildings are modeled. Any new buildings built on the waterfront should match these in terms of scale and architectural design. They must never be dwarfed by unimaginative glass high-rise monsters.

I am glad to see the city, the county, the Port District and the Navy working together to define design standards for downtown. The work that the Centre City Development Corp. and the Centre City Planning Committee are doing now can ensure that our bayfront is protected from insensitive development, if quality design is made a requirement for any new projects and strictly enforced.

All jurisdictions must plan around a common table using a single model of downtown. Failure to do so leaves us open to developers playing each one off the others. It is also unfair to project proponents who must run a gamut of oversight agencies with differing agendas and turf concerns.

DON WOOD

President

Citizens Coordinate-Century III