Mi Arbolito

onion

This 14-story tower sits on the edge of the manicured grass of Balboa Park, in a very prestigious location. Although not completely finished construction, we already have this one pegged as an Onion. 

It's not the fact that it is a tower that's the problem. It's an appropriate place for a tower since it's crammed up against one of the few high-rise condos in Hillcrest, The Del Prado.

For a development which claims to be "the most prestigious and exclusive residential tower in all Southern California” , it is no architectural gem.

The tower has one residential unit per floor - alluding to the exclusivity once more. It's profile appears to simply be an extrusion of the floor plan, though thankfully it is very slim.

The age old architectural concept of base, middle and top has been thrown out the window as the tower smacks into the ground with no more grace than a rocket crashing back to earth. Oh well, maybe they'll throw some pretty plants around the base and call it done. And can anyone find the entrance? It certainly doesn't address either Upas or Sixth.

Minimal effort has been paid to the articulation of the south facade. The other facades are so flat and bland that they bear as striking resemblance to the high rise federal prison in Downtown San Diego.

Project Information
Project Address: 
Corner of Sixth Avenue and Upas Street, facing Balboa Park
Project Owner/ Developer: 
1700 Investors, LLC
Project Architect/ Designer: 
Martinez & Cutri
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Comments:

Mama mia

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 09/30/2008 - 00:30.
To the ding bat architects- Take the pencil out of your hand and walk into the ocean with a sandbag tied to your waist. You continue to do more damage to this city than anyone else.

Mi Arbolito

Submitted by sdnative1 on Sun, 08/31/2008 - 16:11.
For two or three years (more?) there was nothing but an empty hole at that location. A "West Nile Virus Breeding Ground" as one graffiti artist put it. So, when construction began I was hopeful that something special would arise from this very prominent site. Oh, my. We got "special" all right--just not the good kind of special. It's north side really does look like the Fed prison downtown. The west side looks like a low-income senior housing hi-rise. The south side looks like a bi-polar split between a glass office hi-rise and a Holiday Inn. The north side? I don't know. I've been afraid to look. My guess about the lack of pedestal base/entrance is that it was done 100% to maximize salable floor area. This place is in the running for Grand Onion.

It's all relative

Submitted by mch on Wed, 08/13/2008 - 21:23.
It's pretty sad when a building is so bland that it starts to make the Del Prado look like a Modernist Gem. I hope the future owners don't have any friends or family members that would want to visit. It seems the primary entrance is through the sub-grade garage.

Ugh...really??? You can't be serious!!

Submitted by urban_arch on Mon, 06/30/2008 - 04:17.
It pains me and everyone in the design community (and greater community as a whole) to see this horrible building being erected. The hole that was there for two years is better than what came out of it. Who the heck let this thing pass through the building and planning departments or better yet...who's going to get to the bottom of who allowed the changes. It actually relates quite well to the adjacent building making this a horrible 'block' of architecture...and right next to the City's gem, Balboa Park. I think Irving Gill and the Marstens will turn over in their graves once this thing is 'completed'. Lets hang our hats on this as a Grand Onion...seriously.

Mi Arbolito

Submitted by Vostok on Fri, 06/27/2008 - 06:12.
Yikes! I didn't know it was possible to stack manure this high. Isn't it interesting how the architects chose to turn the ugliest faces of this inane tower toward the primary street frontage? This thing is actually mooning all of us (see the center photo above for proof). The nominator's comparison to the downtown jail is exactly right. Hopefully people can escape from this smelly heap.