San Diego native Tony Cutri, partner with Joseph Martinez in Martinez + Cutri, says big buildings do good things for cities. The firm has designed 12 buildings Downtown, among them Cortez Blu and The Mark. (photo/lambertphoto.com)

Cortez Blu, the 20-story condominium tower nearing completion at Eighth Avenue and Ash Street, is a block away from the offices of Martinez + Cutri, the architectural firm that designed it for developer K. Hovnanian. But partner Tony Cutri cannot see it from his 17th floor office in Symphony Towers. An office building blocks his view.

It really doesn’t matter. As one of its designers, Cutri has intimate knowledge of the building, one of many that will lend its lines, shadows and angles to Downtown’s blossoming high-rise landscape when it is completed in December.

“We like big buildings. We think they do good things for cities,” says Cutri, a native San Diegan who partnered with Joseph Martinez 16 years ago to form the architectural company.

When finished, Cortez Blu’s slender figure (holding 67 condos with a penthouse at the top) will be crowned with a round cap or cornice made of semi-transparent perforated metal. The effect will be stunning, a nice contrast to the historic El Cortez nearby.

Martinez and Cutri are part of a growing cadre of architects — locals and out-of-towners — who are using residential developments to stamp their signatures on the skyline and streetscape of Downtown. More than 50 residential condominium projects, most of them high-rises, are scheduled to be built by the end of the decade. They will give Downtown a look and feel far different than what residents and visitors see today, and more will come after that.

Rendering of Cortez Blu and view of the 20-story condominium nearing completion at Eighth Avenue and Ash Street. K. Hovnanian is the developer. Completion is scheduled for December.

Developers are starting to put tons of steel, glass and concrete into the landscape on blueprints that architects hope will imbue the structures with an emotional kick — bold and beautiful designs that invite human interaction. “Architecture is the interface between urban design and quality of life,” says Jim Tanner of San Francisco-based TannerHecht. “It modulates the view, organizes the streetscape for service and safety and satisfies the individual’s needs for shelter and function.”

Garry Papers, manager of architecture and planning for the Centre City Development Corp., says a well-planned and designed Downtown high-rise must have a number of elements. “We like the ground floors to be very pedestrian friendly with a lot of transparency and visual interest, a high percent of clear glass,” says Papers. “There should be a high percentage of retail activity. It could be anything, like a store front where people could watch other people work. The worst thing would be a blank wall, solid brick or something. People stop walking if they see too many unfriendly walls.”

Papers likes to see towers that display “gracious transitions to the sky,” residential buildings with a lot of balconies that create interesting patterns and rhythms. Also important to Papers is the quality of building materials. “We are getting some very sophisticated designs from architectural firms and we want to make sure they are bringing their best materials,” he says. “Stainless steel and stone will last for centuries. And brick is durable. So is concrete. The Romans used concrete.”

Pushing The Bar Higher

Austin Veum Robbins Partners designed the Pinnacle Museum Tower development of 182 condominiums in a 35-story structure, three levels of below-grade parking and 10,000 square feet of retail space. Completion is scheduled this year.

Papers compares Park Place, an “older” Downtown high-rise on West Harbor Drive that was completed by Bosa Development in 2003, to what is being done today. The 178 condominiums and town homes were designed by Chris Dikeakos, a Canadian architect who marked the tower with balconies on nearly every floor. Papers’ view of the building reflects how Downtown design preferences have changed in the space of only a few years.

“Park Place is adequate, but we’re pushing the bar higher,” says Papers. “It has a base with a good pedestrian scale, but we typically want more active commercial uses on the ground floors. Although the residential town homes along the California Street ‘mews’ are appropriate, the project is 100 percent residential and the units adjacent to busy streets are usually empty or have blinds or curtains that are fully closed. On active streets such as those, retail and commercial storefronts would be better. Currently we do not have binding requirements to do so, and developers have opted for the condo income.”

The base and mid-tower of Park Place are uniformly painted concrete, where CCDC prefers more material variety and more stone, brick and/or metal, particularly at the base, says Papers. “Walk by Pinnacle Museum Tower nearing completion four blocks east,” he says. “It displays a high quality stone and glass base, which will be largely retail uses, and is a taller proportion to better define the street than Park Place does. Overall, we’ve learned from Park Place and continue to refine and improve our architectural goals and expectations.”

At some point, adds Papers, architectural character is subject to personal preference. “Like choices in fashion, cuisine, theater and such, the city benefits from a range of choices. We do not uniformly seek a particular character, or even use the word ‘style.’ But we do require all buildings to exhibit superior design principles, good composition at the pedestrian and distant scale and be executed with durable, quality materials and construction.”

Doug Austin of Austin Veum Robbins Partners says the company’s Downtown projects share common elements. ‘They allow a lot of natural light into the units and they take advantage of their sites in terms of views and how they meet the ground plane,’ says Austin. (photo/lambertphoto.com)

San Diego-based Austin Veum Robbins Partners is one of the most prolific Downtown architects, responsible for the design of such upcoming developments as the Pinnacle Museum Tower, Sapphire Tower, 17th and G, Cosmopolitan Square, Allegro Tower, Smart Corner, Laundry Lofts, Library Tower, Element and G Lofts East. Partner Doug Austin says they all share common elements. “They allow a lot of natural light into the units and they take advantage of their sites in terms of views and how they meet the ground plane,” says Austin. “All are activated at the ground with retail or unit entries or stoops of some kind.”

Views and noise considerations are important, too, adds Austin. Architects have been able to design buildings with spectacular views of the bay, he says, and to mitigate unwelcome sounds from trains, vehicles, “the neighbor next door.” “When we design a building, we involve an acoustical engineer to work with us.”

Tanner-Hecht designed the Diegan, the 20-story condominium hotel on Fifth Avenue being built for developer Steve Rebeil, and the Icon in East Village for Levin Menzies & Associates. Both projects incorporate historic elements. The Diegan is retaining the façade of the Jessops Building while the composition of its tower, says Tanner, is pure 21st century. The Icon will preserve the old Carnation building while adding four residential towers ranging from five to 24 floors. “Both projects are intended to give a different dimension to the skyline, the Icon with its colorful, complex and vaguely industrial forms and the Diegan with its sleek metal exterior, stainless steel mesh fin and photovoltaic south wall and roof,” says Tanner.

Designing For The Outdoors

Douglas Wilson Co.’s The Mark was designed by Martinez + Cutri and will include 233 tower residences, 11 townhomes and 8,000 square feet of retail space on the block bounded by Market Street and Island, Eighth and Ninth avenues. Completion is expected in 2007.

Former city architect Mike Stepner, a professor of architecture at the New School of Architecture & Design, says Downtown architects are creating vibrant streetscape plans and buildings that take advantage of San Diego’s mild climate by incorporating balconies, parapets and patios at various levels “where people can get out and experience the outdoors.”

Australian architect/developer Eugene Marchese says his Embassy 1414, a 27-story, 98-unit condominium set to begin construction in February at West Ash and Columbia streets, relates well to San Diego’s climate. “Large expanses of openable glass walls that lead out onto large balconies is something that is rare in the current crop of high-rise towers,” he says. “These large balconies create a different high-rise architectural language.”

Architects agree that attention to these kinds of details will not only make San Diego’s Downtown more livable, but stamp it with its own unique character, different from any other city in America.

Stepner, however, feels San Diego’s Downtown won’t reach its residential potential without more amenities that serve people. Downtown neighborhoods, he says, need to attract more supermarkets, restaurants, shops, specialty stores and other services and to develop more parks “to create a sense of place and a sense of home” to residents. “Downtown is moving in that direction,” Stepner believes. “We have one grocery store and one coming up in East Village. We don’t have a lot of parks.”

San Diego native Tony Cutri, partner with Joseph Martinez in Martinez + Cutri, says big buildings do good things for cities. The firm has designed 12 buildings Downtown, among them Cortez Blu and The Mark. (photo/lambertphoto.com)

The Legend, a Bosa project targeted for completion in spring 2007 on a site just north of Petco Park, was designed by Vancouver-based Perkins & Co. John Perkins Sr., who runs the firm with his son, says the 23-story tower will house 183 condominiums and the base will have a good complement of retail space — 30,000 square feet. Even so, he says, Downtown neighborhoods still need much more — “grocery stores, dry cleaners, drug stores, health care offices, everything you would expect in a small town. You get those things and you’ll have fewer people relying on their cars.”

Papers says CCDC’s design standards from 1992 have held up well over the years. The new community plan and zoning code builds on those strengths and expands them. “Urban design has brought back to many downtowns an emphasis on the public realm between buildings,” Papers says. “This is as important or more important than the design of the structure. We have to reinforce this.”

Downtown also benefits from small blocks — 200x300 feet, or 1.4 acres per block — which force developers to build tall and slender buildings rather than short and fat ones. Many big-city downtowns contain two to three acres per block, which not only encourages massive walls of buildings but requires alleys to provide access to some of the parcels. Papers attributes San Diego’s small blocks to Boundary Commission surveyor Lt. Andrew Gray, who laid out the original “New Town” west of Front Street and south of Broadway, in 1850 for William Heath Davis. Papers says Alonzo Horton continued the pattern north and east in 1867.

In Progress

Bosa Pacific Highway at E, designed by Canadian architect Chris Dikeakos for Bosa Development, is slated for completion in summer 2009. The 38-story tower will contain 271 condominiums.

Downtown San Diego is a work in progress. What residents, office workers and visitors see today is the beginning of a huge rush of building that architects believe will transform the landscape far into the future. Tanner likens Downtown to a teenager sprouting 14 inches the first year of high school. “It is awkward, necessary and strangely satisfying all at once,” he says. “But if it’s properly cultivated, you’ll see dramatic results. There is room for the ugly building and the beautiful, the large and the small, the delicate and the brutal, side by side. One defines the other.” Stepner believes the changes are healthy and necessary. “Downtown will always be evolving. There are 1,500 acres here. It’s a huge area. It will evolve and it will change and it will never be done,” he says.

“San Diego Downtown will have its own unique look,” says Perkins. “Everybody is stepping up. It’s growing up and filling out and will be one of America’s beautiful cities.”

Cutri says Downtown’s architectural styles will eventually start “bleeding” into National City, Chula Vista and other cities in the county, an inevitable result of their successful implementation Downtown.

Papers believes the Downtown landscape must be designed for posterity. “Unlike transient fashions,” he says, “our architecture will define our culture for many decades, and every citizen will daily experience the buildings and public spaces we create, so they must be our very best.”